Such is the stuff from where dreams are woven
by luckypuck
Summary: Sarah now 23, has followed her ambition to Soho, London. While rehearsing to star in a West End Production, she begins to suspect that her flirtatious costar is not who he claims to be. On top of that, visions of a face she could never forget begin to plague her at every turn until she begins to wonder whether these visions are guiding her to her dreams or making her lose her way.
1. Opening doors and pulling some strings

_Disclamer: I do not own Labyrinth or The Green Bay Tree or David Bowie or his songs from which I tend to pull phrases from to name chapters and such. I also don't own the Tisch School but I did audition for their dance program. After passing through their technical audition I fell flat on my face in my solo performance which for some reason made them reconsider their admittance of me to their distinguished program. But it's whatever! I'm not bitter. Definitely gotten over it. Stupid slippery floor. I cry whenever I see wet floor signs. PS for reasons of my own (laziness-lack of fact checking-also I am so dependent on technology that I am virtually incapable of imagining a world without smartphones) I have modernized the timeline so that the events of Labyrinth the movie happened in 2008 ish I think (I avoid basic arithmetic) so Sarah is now 23 in 2016. Thanks to breathelabyrinth for pointing that out!_

CHAPTER 1: Opening Doors and Pulling Some Strings

"At last! Now I am completely moved in," Sarah said to no one in particular as she placed a picture of her little brother Toby on the bookshelf in the living area of the flat she shared with two other girls: Masha and Melissa.

Masha was a junior when Sarah first arrived at New York University's incredibly exclusive Tisch Performing Arts college. The two girls were fast friends and even roommates for Masha's final year at NYU but then the older girl left for London to perform in an avant-garde theatre and dance troupe in Soho. Upon Sarah's graduation two years later, she received an amazing offer to play the female lead in a small West End production of The Green Bay Tree. Urgently needing lodging after an original living arrangement fell through, Sarah was overjoyed to learn that Masha and her current London flatmate, Melissa, had room for one more on the lease for their cozy, moderately-priced flat in Chelsea.

"Aw he's lovely," a passing Melissa admired Toby's picture from behind Sarah, then she continued on her short path to their tiny kitchen bundled up like a burrito in her robe.

"My brother Toby. He just turned 10," Sarah explained.

"I bet he misses you the poor darling," Melissa commented from the kitchen. Sarah found she was getting used to—and rapidly falling in love with the girl's charming Welsh lilt.

"Not as much as I miss him. I got to see him once a month when I was in college but it will be harder to spend time with him now that I have moved across the pond."

"Well at least there's always Skype! Right? Would you like some tea or coffee?"

"I do feel like tea—but don't trouble yourself I'll get it! Don't you need to head out?"

"Oh no, I got you girl! I don't have rehearsal until tonight." Sarah smiled and thanked Melissa who was putting a kettle on the stove. Even though she was a bit small for her profession, Melissa worked as a dancer in the same troupe as Masha. Sarah liked her new flatmate a lot. She was always very helpful. She was also very beautiful. Sarah envied the shorter woman's perfect dark complexion and silky black hair. Sarah made a quick note to herself to find out what kind of beauty products Melissa used.

"When do you start your play's rehearsals?" Melissa asked as she stood on her tippy-toes to shift through an over-crowded cabinet in search of mugs.

"The read through is in an hour actually, I was just just trying to finish decorating before I headed out."

"Oh right, do you want some help?"

"That's alright I just finished. Toby was my last touch," Sarah began tidying up her now empty moving boxes from the living room.

"You finished? What about that owl print on the table there? Aren't you going to hang it up? It's really cool! Where did you get it?"

Sarah looked at the print in question. It was a woodcut of a chubby but cute barn owl on a worn and old-looking piece of parchment. At the bottom it read in spacious lettering, CURMUDGEON.

"It is pretty cool," Sarah admitted, "maybe I'll find a place for it. I don't know exactly where it came from. I just found it in my stuff while I was unpacking. Must be a housewarming gift from my step-mom, she's been buying a lot of local artists' stuff lately most of it is just junk plus she knows that owls are my favorite animal." Of course no one knew exactly why Sarah was so fond of owls. Her teenage fancies were a very close-guarded secret that she only told to Toby, given his involvement, who accepted them as truth—as he did everything his older sister told him. The train of Sarah's thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a loud whistle in the kitchen. The noise soon stopped, and Sarah heard the faint sound of pouring water.

"Aw I don't think he's junk, he's cute!" Melissa slowly made her way to Sarah carrying two rather full mugs, "You should put him right over the couch in the living room. He'll be our mascot. We can even give him a name! Here tea's ready." She carefully handed Sarah the mug with the mugshot of a young Frank Sinatra on it. Sarah sipped at the hot liquid from the rim.

"Thank you this tea is perfect. And I love this mug. Maybe I will put the owl up. I'll see if Masha is into it later. I've got to go change real quick and then head out now, but we should grab drinks after your rehearsal!" Sarah picked up the poster and headed for her room making sure not to spill any tea.

Melissa shouted after her, "Yes we should do! I'll text you when I'm finished. Oh and good luck on your first day!"

Sarah glanced up at a square old building that looked as if it had been left standing after the Great Fire of London by some mistake, forgotten, nestled between modernist storefronts and restaurants. Sarah thought the ancient stone edifice even looked oddly scorched in places as she ascended the stairs to a great wood door that looked as if it belonged to the entrance of a gothic mansion. She debated knocking, but the giant metal knocker looked like it hadn't been touched in centuries. Instead, Sarah grasped the large circular knob protruding from the door's middle and pulled with all her strength, but the door did not budge. She quickly tested to see if the knob rotates, it did not. Of course not, she berated herself, it is wood and quite obviously fused to the door. Gently placing her bucket bag on the ground, Sarah grabbed a hold of the knob again, and with slight regret at her choice in high-heeled boots, put her right foot on the wall beside the door yanking with all of her strength, desperately trying to force the door open. Thinking she felt something almost give way, Sarah picked up her left foot and placed it to where she had a foot on either side of the door as she leaned off of the knob so that she could use her weight to force the stubborn door open.

"Come on! Nearly there," she grunted and yanked when all of a sudden she felt a strong presence behind her and a pair of long arms encased her. She gasped as large hands eased hers from the knob and a cool voice whispered much too near her ear, "You push."

Immediately Sarah's back fell to the stranger's chest which moved closer and gripped her hands tighter in response, as if to protect her from falling which she surely would have with her feet still perched on the wall.

Affronted by the extreme invasion of space and slightly annoyed at being caught making a bonehead mistake by a stranger, Sarah planted her boots firmly on the ground and stepped out of the strong arms and firm body that had surrounded her, "Yes, thank you," she said sternly and without looking at the man behind her she quickly pushed the treacherous door open with ease. Mustering an appearance of self-confidence, she walked purposefully through the doorway, past the security desk and elevators and straight up the stairs. Trying to avoid the grabby man who had witnessed her foolish mistake with the door, Sarah took the shallow steps two at a time thankful for her long legs. Honestly did the stranger need to be so feely? He could have just politely told her she needed to push. And why does a door even have a knob if it is supposed to be pushed not pulled? She angrily mused to herself on the way up. Now slightly out of breath as she reached the third floor, she went straight to a desk where a teenage looking receptionist sat watching videos on his tablet.

"I'm Sarah Williams I am here for the GBT read through," she announced.

"CHARLIE! She's here!" the youth shouted without looking up from his tablet. Behind the desk a door opened and a rather flustered, slightly overweight man appeared. Sarah immediately recognized him as the stage director of the play who auditioned her in New York.

"My name is CHARLES," he practically growled at the boy, "And must you shout?" he admonished more quietly as he made his way towards Sarah. The teenage boy took no notice of his chastisement. "Sarah my dear girl you made it!" Charles gushed and leaned to kiss her cheeks, "Great to see you again! How are you settling into London?" He didn't pause to let her answer and instead ushered her away from the desk towards a hallway. "Insolent boy, my sister's horrible son," He whispered to her while glancing behind them, "She insisted I give him some position in the production but he is absolutely useless." Turning back to Sarah he cried, "Oh please forgive me my dear! I meant to tell you that you look positively radiant! Even more beautiful than you were at your audition. And I didn't think such a thing could be possible!" Charles continued to sing her praises. Although she would normally find such empty adulation annoying, currently Sarah found the bubbly man's enthusiasm an odd comfort to the slight nervousness she was finally beginning to feel.

At the end of the hallway, they turned through a doorway and into a small room where the table read was obviously about to take place. A long table was nearly full of a dozen or so friendly faces of other cast and crew and Charles led her to the center of the table where three chairs remained empty. He sat her down in the chair farthest to right as he grandly announced, "My dears, I'm am overflowing with excitement to introduce to you the latest addition to our merry family!"—Sarah looked around and smiled warmly at the kind faces around her—"our very own Helen Hayes," Charles paused for effect as Sarah tried hard to appear as regal as he made her sound, "straight from New York City!" he was now nearly shouting, "Ms. Sarah Williams!" He burst into applause and the rest of the table followed suit. Sarah smiled at the sound, one she longed for since her childhood when she dreamed of being a celebrated stage actress. She was too busy smiling and soaking up the attention to notice a late arrival to their party. She vaguely heard Charles announce, "Oh good Francis is here now, Sarah you must meet Francis he is to play your beloved Julian!"

Sarah's smile faded as she heard a familiarly sultry voice say, "Oh but we have already met, haven't we Sarah? Your bag I believe?" Slightly confused now, she turned but only saw her bucket bag hanging in the air in front of her face. She hadn't even realized she'd lost it! Then it dawned on her, Oh god the door! Her costar is Mr. grabby? When she snatched back her bag she finally looked at the man currently standing above her, her gut constricted into a knot and even though her lungs suddenly refused to work she managed to give a suitably dramatic gasp,

"Jareth!"

 _Voila! End of first chapter! Please let me know what you think or if I have made a huge error(s) somewhere (I am newb)! This story is dedicated to David Bowie (einer meiner helden). It seems that re-watching his films and listening to his music on a loop isn't cathartic enough for me I am going to have to write a few fanfics. So stay tuned for more! Also FYI the title of this ff comes from Station to Station and the title of the chapter comes from Golden Years._


	2. Got a camouflaged face and no money

_Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth or The Green Bay Tree or David Bowie or his songs from which I tend to pull phrases from to name chapters and such. Aren't you all impressed by my speed at uploading this next chapter? Or are you judging my obvious lack of social life? ALSO just as a reminder I have contemporized the timeline ever so slightly._

CHAPTER 2: Got a camouflaged face and no money

The moment she saw those chiseled cheekbones, Sarah's world completely froze as if under a spell. It was him! Jareth the Goblin King! He was here! She always felt she would see him again some day but why here and why now? _Wait_ —she thought— _something is off_. He felt off. She didn't feel that strange and alluring mixture of sensual magic and tantalizing danger that she always felt in his presence all those years ago. Then she noticed several details that did not match up to the Jareth she remembered. She looked closer into now unfamiliar eyes: the irises were identical and a couple shades too blue. The eyebrows were too long and didn't match Jareth's leonine coloring. His short hair was dark brown, nearly black. He was also a couple inches too short. Altogether he was just too ordinary. He was still breathtakingly handsome, but he lacked Jareth's commanding presence and ethereal beauty. _This can't be Jareth,_ Sarah determined. But he looked so similar in the face he could be Jareth's brother. If Jareth has a brother? Could he possibly have a son? What a strange thought, after all this doppelgänger looked only a few years older than her and who knows how old Jareth really was—he might be old enough to be her father. Deciding not to pursue that line of thought any further, Sarah tried to regain focus. Her breathing gradually returned to normal and she had stopped shaking. She didn't notice that she had been shaking. She also didn't notice that she was still staring at—not Jareth—Francis? That's right Charles called him Francis. And Francis returned her gaze as he stood over her chair, apparently amused judging by his smug grin. Quickly looking around, she noticed that the entire room was silently staring at her in question.

Sarah cleared her throat to break the silence then said, "Hm I'm afraid I don't recognize you Mr?"  
"—Bonhomme," Francis answered with a slightly predatory smilie. He sank with the grace of a large cat into the seat next to Sarah's, so close to her that he was practically in her lap.

"Francis Bonhomme, I am not familiar with that name," Sarah answered dismissively trying to subtly adjust her seat to put more space between them, "You must be new to theatre. Or maybe you have appeared in some _underground_ productions I might have heard of?" Sarah watched his face closely but if he had understood her implication he showed no signs.

"Yes, I am very well known underground," he said flatly. Sarah's eyes widened at the cryptic answer. He continued, "And I am quite familiar with your name, Ms. Williams. Daughter of the infamous Linda Williams I believe?"

At hearing that name Sarah blushed and quickly lost her gusto, "Yes Linda Williams is my mother," she answered in a small voice. Defeated, she finally broke her gaze with Francis. And turned to look at Charles who was dabbing his sweaty brow with a blue handkerchief as he listened to their heated exchange.

Taking her look as a cue to continue the table read, Charles turned to address the group, "Well now that we are all settled in and acquainted with one another I wanted to just say a few things about my vision for this play before we continue with the reading…" Sarah tried to pay attention as Charles rambled on but she found it hard to concentrate with a certain pair of steel blue eyes boring into her. And even though their legs were not touching, the small negative space between them was as tangible as a powerful magnetic field. When the table politely clapped once Charles had finished his small speech, Sarah noticed a bit too late and frantically began clapping after everyone else was nearly finished. Once again the table looked at her in question and she could see from the corner of her eye that Francis was grinning. She blushed and rather lamely finished her clapping. _This is not going well,_ Sarah thought to herself. She was going to have to get it together for the read through or she might screw up her first big break.

But once they began, Sarah had no problem delving into the narrative of the play. It helped that the older stage actor, Ron Redwood, who starred alongside her and Francis as the possessive character Dulcie, was able to portray so much emotion just though dialogue alone. The older man's subtly spoken obsession with Francis's character fueled a strange sense of jealousy in Sarah that she tried to harness for her own scenes as Leonora aka Leo. The scenes where Leo bickered with Dulcie she found especially fun and the comic timing between her and Ron was perfectly in tune. As for the scenes where Leo and Julian fall in love, she found that the timing between her and Francis was more than just in tune. The chemistry between them was electrifying to the point that she forgot there were others in the room with them as they laughed and flirted together. "You're so pampered," she would tease. "Well it's all I've ever known," he answered with a sad smile. And even though it was an older woman reading the stage directions like "Leo strokes Julian's hair," and "Julian leans in to kiss Leo," Sarah felt as though it was all really happening. That last stage direction gave her goosebumps even though they never touched. They just stared at each other from over their scripts. She could see it in his eyes—he felt it too. They were kissing.

It was all over too soon three hours later. Everyone was exhilarated from the obvious quality of the script and the acting. There was no question, it was going to be a good show. Charles was dancing around the table congratulating everyone on its success. When he leaned over Francis and Sarah he grabbed both of their hands in each of his and gushed, "Smashing! Absolutely smashing my darlings you were beyond perfect! Of course, I never had any doubt!" Then he kissed their hands with a loud "Mwha!" then let go to continue on his celebratory rounds. But Sarah found that one of her hands was still captured in a gloved hand—Francis. She looked up at him and he was staring straight into her eyes. Then, without saying anything or lowering his gaze he brought her hand to his mouth. Sarah's pulse quickened and he must have felt it because he began to gently squeeze her hand in response before slowly lowering it.

"You are a fine actress," he said still holding her hand.

"Thank you," Sarah blushed, "You are also very good."

"I think it would be beneficial if we were to grab a drink and get to know one another a bit more. Are you busy tonight?" he asked.

"I—uh, that is," Sarah for whatever reason could not bring herself to accept the invitation, "I cannot tonight I'm sorry. I have plans with my roommate." But that was not the real reason she refused. Sarah still felt uneasy, as if there was something more to Francis. She didn't feel ready to take him on alone.

"Tomorrow night then?" he asked.

Sarah considered giving a flimsy excuse but she couldn't do that either. He cocked his head as he waited for her response and gently began to stroke the inside of her wrist with his leather-clad thumb. Then she completely lost her head, "Yes! Yes, tomorrow night works."

"Perfect!" he said. He stood and pulled her up with him, "I'll take you out after rehearsals tomorrow."

"Ok," Sarah said rather lamely. Then she turned to leave.

"Sarah!" Francis called before she reached the door.

"Yes Ja—Francis?"

"Your bag," he said grinning again and holding up her stupid bucket bag. She was definitely tossing it after today. She never used purses anyways.

She walked back to him quickly and snatched it from his grasp, "Thanks," she said then practically ran off. She could just hear the sound of faint laughter following her out the door.

Outside night had fallen. Sarah walked down the stairs of the entrance and turned back for another look at the ancient building. Just then she noticed that the scorch marks she had noticed earlier in the day now combined with shadows from the street lights to create what looked amazingly like a face. _Jareth's face!_ There was no mistaking it this time that was definitely Jareth, not Francis but Jareth—the real deal. Well in shadowy scorch form. Sarah thought she must be going crazy. There is no way, it's just a coincidence. It is just a trick of the light. Moving closer, Sarah convinces herself that the image of his face is just her mind playing tricks on her. She has been thinking too much about Jareth today ever since that stupid owl poster. Then there was the stress of her new show and meeting a man who just happens to have the same cheekbones as Jareth. That is only bound to happen, Jareth doesn't own the rights to amazing cheekbones. Sarah turned around and walked away from the random marks on the building. She just needs rest. And she needs to stop thinking about cheekbones. Yes that's what she needs: rest and cheekbones. Er—no cheekbones. And she can't put up that owl poster. It won't do her any good to constantly be distracted by thoughts of Jareth as she tries to pursue the big break of her career. Sarah headed home, looking forward to winding down with a drink or two with Melissa. As she turned the corner for home, the face on the wall behind her completely vanished.

 _Fin! End of second chapter! They are rather long I apologize. Please let me know what you think or if I have made a huge error(s) somewhere (I am newb)! All feedback is greatly appreciated :D FYI the title of this chapter comes from Blue Jean. It's actually supposed to be "she's got a camouflaged face…" but I dropped the she because the camouflaged face(s) in question in this chapter are so beautifully male._


	3. All night! She was a young American

_Disclaimer: I still do not own Labyrinth or Barcade or Soju or Michael Jackson or David Bowie or his songs from which I tend to pull phrases from to name chapters and such. This chapter took a bit longer to write. It just kept going and going and somehow Sarah turned out to be a party-er who'd a thunk? Probably me just trying to live vicariously through her. Have I mentioned I have no social life?_

CHAPTER 3: All night! She was a young American

"How did it go?" Masha demanded as soon as Sarah entered their apartment. Sarah's best friend was lounging on their living room couch in her robe. Masha was a tall and beautiful Russian actress and dancer with blond hair and grey eyes. She always moved with a grace and elegance that betrayed her balletic training. But underneath her outward poise, Masha's quirky personality was a little less than graceful.

"Rough start, but it ended very well. The director said it was a _smashing success!_ " Sarah mimicked in Charles's posh voice then collapsed on the couch next to Masha. Then she smiled and said, "I think the show is going to be great."

"That's great! We need to celebrate! Here have a hobnob!" Masha said pulling, as if by magic, a mushy ball that was apparently once a cookie from the pocket of her robe.

"No thanks. Where did you get that?" Sarah dubiously eyed the gooey mess in her friend's hand.

"Dunno, I must have stored it in my robe a while ago for safekeeping," Masha said then ate it whole, "Yep! Still good."  
Sarah learned long ago not to judge Masha's strange food tastes which included but was not limited to brown bananas, moldy bread, sour milk, expired jello, whole pizzas, and pancakes dropped in dirt.

"I'm amazed that you eat the way you do and never gain weight or get sick. It's not fair," Sarah grumbled.

"I do a lot of squats," Masha explained, "Oh by the way, Melissa and I talked to Toby, he Skyped while you were out. He said to tell you that the owl print is from him and its name is 'Jareth' so we went ahead and put it up for you," Masha indicated above her head where, sure enough, the chubby little curmudgeon sat staring straight into Sarah's eyes. Sarah was touched by her brother's gesture but at the same time she was horrified that now she was obligated to hang up the symbol of her growing obsession with a certain man she suddenly couldn't keep out of her thoughts. Her sanity was doomed.

"You guys didn't have to do that," Sarah said trying to hide her slight panic, "We can put it somewhere more out of the way, like in the closet. Closet art is a thing. Look it up on Etsy," Sarah said when Masha gave her a sassy eyebrow look that quite clearly said _Stop making things up._ Sarah gave up. The owl could stay. She would just have to forever avoid looking above the couch.

But then things quickly got worse, "Our mascot doesn't belong in the closet," Masha said firmly.

"Mascot?" Sarah said dumbfounded.

"Yes Jareth, our mascot," Masha explained slowly as if Sarah were a small child, "The adorable present your adorable brother got specifically for you," then Masha brightened and quickly said, "You know he still calls me his 'starshaya sestra' he is so sweet and such a smarty! I'm going to have to steal him."

Sarah smiled quietly to herself at the irony then tried to desperately reason, "But it says curmudgeon couldn't it be called curmudgeon?"

Masha stood up from the couch, "Call _it_ what you like, me _and_ Melissa _and_ Toby are calling _him_ Jareth. Now go get ready to go out. Melissa and I decided to treat you to some celebratory Korean barbecue."

Sarah had never had Korean barbecue and was upset she had not been introduced to it sooner. "Mm! Food of the Gods" she declared shoving a third kimchi and pork lettuce wrap into her mouth. Masha nodded in agreement and loaded more meat onto their table's grill since she had already devoured her portion of the first batch faster than should be humanly possible.

"So Sarah aren't you working with a gorgeous leading man?" Melissa asked with a cheeky grin.

"Who Ron? He's like fifty but attractive I guess if you are into older men," Sarah said deliberately misunderstanding the question.

"No no the young guy role," Mellisa corrected, "You know who I mean."

"Oh Francis. Well he is very good looking," Sarah admitted, "But a bit touchy-feely."

"Oh a creep?" Melissa asked, "You should just tell him you have a boyfriend who will beat him up if he touches you again. That's what I always do."

"He's not creepy exactly," Sarah tried to explain, "He is kind of arrogant. Also, he asked me on a date I think." She blushed as she remembered the feeling of Francis's hand as he asked her to drinks. Melissa and Masha gasped.

"My you do work fast," Melissa admired.

"Just as popular here as you were in New York," Masha said as she flipped the meat on the grill. Then she asked Sarah, "So come on tell us, when is this date? And what do you mean by _you think_?"

"Tomorrow night," Sarah answered, "but he wanted it to be tonight. And it is possible it might just be for the sake of our chemistry on stage. He said our getting drinks would be _beneficial._ And you know how actors can be. They would do anything for the sake of getting into character." Sarah found it hard to determine Francis's motives. On one hand he looked and seemed human enough, yet she had seen firsthand that he was too good an actor to take appearances at face value. He just might be more than he is putting on. She opted to change the subject, "What is this drink?" she asked indicating the green bottle of clear liquid on the table that they had yet to open.

"Soju!" Masha cried excitedly.

"It's strong," Melissa warned as she opened the bottle and began to pour small portions of the clear liquid into three chilled shot glasses, "Let's have a toast!"

The three friends raised their glasses as Masha proposed, "To Sarah! And her _smashing success_!"

"And to many successes to come!" Melissa added.

"Thank you guys," Sarah said, happy in her luck of such good roommates. When she downed the shot her brain immediately went completely numb, "Oh my. That was…"

"Good?" Masha asked amused by her friends reaction to the soju.

"Getting back to you and your new beau," Melissa abruptly asked as Sarah internally groaned, "didn't you have chemistry during the read?"

"Oh sure there was some chemistry," Sarah answered a bit reluctantly trying not to think back to the not-kiss they shared. Too late! She suddenly felt a flutter in her stomach which she quickly attempted to bury by eating more kimchi. Scoffing it down too fast, she inhaled a particularly spicy bit and started to cough uncontrollably. Without pausing to consider the consequences she grabbed the soju bottle and began to gulp it down.

"Whoa steady girl! You can't drink it that fast!" Masha said clapping a hand on Sarah's back. When she finished, Sarah wiped the tears from her eyes and set the bottle down.

"Wow that stuff is good," she said tasting the vibrant flavor of her food even more after the smoothness of the drink. Sarah's temporary respite ended when Melissa began to question her more on Francis.

"But you both had chemist—"

"—Excuse me for interrupting ladies but I had to come talk to you," standing a little too close to Sarah was a suited youngish man holding a nearly empty soju bottle. His looks and beard were well maintained but his snobby voice, noxious cologne, and lascivious grin made Sarah's skin crawl. He portrayed all of the classic signs of the garden-variety creeper. "You see, my mates and I were wondering if you would like to join our table?" he asked them all but still staring very intently at Sarah. The three girls looked at the table where the man's friends, two carbon copies of him, were sitting then looked at each other in silent agreement.

"No thanks, we are here for a private celebration," Sarah said trying her best to be diplomatic.

The man looked affronted for a second but pasted on a practiced smile and leaned in closer to Sarah to say, "Come on American girl, celebrating is more fun with lots of people."

Sarah was two seconds away from getting snippy when Melissa piped up, "You're wasting your time mate, she has a boyfriend. And he'll beat you up if you touch her."

The man flashed an ugly and patronizing grin at Melissa as he said, "Oh really, what's this boyfriends name then?" Then he turned his stare back on Sarah who very nearly said _Francis_ but something stopped her. And that was when Masha snorted and said "His name is Jareth!" Then she collapsed in a fit of hysterical laughter on top of a giggling Melissa. Sarah grew silent and withdrew into herself thinking _Jareth my boyfriend?_ She allowed herself to caress that thought for a while, completely ignoring her surroundings. When she finally returned, Melissa was serving out more soju and Masha's chuckling was dying down as she dished out more grilled pork. The man was gone. He had apparently retreated back to his mates, defeated and confused by their bizarre rejection.

"A toast to our victor!" Melissa celebrated raising her shot glass. Sarah followed suit and Masha cried, "To Jareth!"

After the wholly satisfying meal and another celebratory bottle of soju, the girls ended up at Barcade. "I just want to play the Michael Jackson game once or twice! 10 minutes tops!" Masha promised, dragging Sarah past the bar where Melissa stopped to order drinks.

Feeling a pleasant buzz, Sarah watched the giant atari screen as Masha moonwalked her way to victory against the hordes of gangsters who were for whatever reason very sensitive to pelvic hip thrusts. "God I love the 80s," Sarah mused quietly to herself. "Don't miss the monkey!" she pointed to the monkey on the screen. When Masha grabbed it, she transformed into a mecha-Michael Jackson with lasers. Just then Melissa joined them bearing gifts, namely some pale craft beers. Sarah took hers then toasted "To Jareth!" and they all laughed.

Thirty minutes later, after a round of Ms. Pac-man and another round of beer, another trio of garden-variety creeps approached the three roommates, but this time Sarah was prepared. "You're wasting your time mates! We're engaged to be married!" She shouted before their surprised leader even got to try out his pick-up line. "To Jareth," she tried to explain when she saw their confused faces unknowingly confusing them even more much to the amusement of her roommates who were uncontrollably laughing at the unfortunate men who were now quickly fleeing the scene.

After Masha had spent all her laundry quarters on arcade games, she and Sarah were carted to a nightclub where Melissa wanted to dance. Sarah felt a bit too tipsy to dance and instead made her way through the crowded dance floor to the even more crowded bathroom queue. A nice-looking man joined her in line with her and they chatted, or at least as much as they could over the blaring house music.

"Wanna dance?" he shouted at her.

"What?" she shouted back.

"Dance!" he shouted louder this time, bouncing to the music for clarification.

Sarah tried to inform him she was unavailable, "I'm married!" she shouted.

"What?" he said.

"I'm married to Jareth!" and she pointed to her left ring finger where she had wrapped a straw wrapper. She hoped the prop would help improve her performance since she botched the lines at Barcade. Taking a quick look at the ring, the man shrugged and departed. Pleased, but a bit surprised her decoy ring didn't raise any questions, Sarah was left on her own standing in line for the restroom. Just ahead of her was a motley crew of women who ranged in all ages, shapes, and sizes who all headed into the closet-sized restroom together.

One older blond woman in the group looked back at Sarah and suddenly said, "Come on in love! You come too!"

Tired of waiting and really needing a wee, Sarah squeezed her way into water closet with the strange women. Inside, the woman who invited her in held out a hand, "Elizabeth," she said over the chatting and laughing around them.

"Sarah," Sarah answered and shook the woman's hand. "I'm married," Sarah suddenly declared flashing her left hand and paper prop. For whatever reason she decided it was fun to continue with her charade, "His name is Jareth."

"Oh really?" the older woman politely inquired, "I'm married too. It's rare to find another married woman on a night out without her husband these days," Elizabeth said as a toilet flushed behind them.

"He's got beautiful cheekbones," Sarah responded, she was obviously a bit too tipsy at this point to carry on an adult conversation. The other girls shuffled their way around the toilet.

"Well…" the rest of Elizabeth's conversation was drowned out by another flush.

Then in the following reshuffle, Sarah lost track of her new friend and ended up facing a short and stout young woman dressed in all black who looked her up and down then demanded, "Did I just hear you claim that your husband has nice cheekbones?"

"Beautiful cheekbones, the best!" Sarah corrected.

The other woman must not have been very impressed since she turned away from Sarah to apply some red lipstick in the mirror. Once she had finished, she turned back to face Sarah, "Well we all just happen to be a fan club dedicated to a singer with the best cheekbones in the world. He's playing upstairs in a few minutes. You should check him out. If you do I bet you'll join our club, husband or no."

"I'll go," Sarah answered, probably a bit too eagerly for a supposedly married woman.

After her bathroom adventures, Sarah made her way back to the dance floor. Spotting Melissa and Masha dancing together in a corner, she pushed through spastic bodies and shouted at her dancing friends, "I'm going upstairs to see the band play! Wanna come?"

Masha nodded. Together they both grabbed Melissa, too busy dancing to notice anything, and headed for the stairway where the fan club had gathered.

"Cover is five quid," the large and imposing bouncer told them.

"What? That's expensive!" Masha cried.

"You just spent fifteen quid in quarters at Barcade," Melissa pointed out.

"That was different," Masha claimed.

"That is expensive I don't want to pay that," Sarah said and then laughed, "I need the money to support my husband Jareth and our baby!"  
At that Masha and Melissa erupted into laughter. Sarah laughed at her own bad joke and unfortunately continued her weird fantasy with "No! Not just one! Multiple babies! All named Goblin Jr. after the Jareth King!" Luckily no one was paying her much attention at that point and missed her drunken slip and lame humor. When Sarah finished laughing at herself, she looked up to see that the all of the fan girls had already paid the five quid and were about to head upstairs. Only a small underage-looking girl with dyed blue remained staring at Sarah as if she were crazy. Sarah whipped out a twenty and grabbed her still-laughing friends so that they wouldn't miss the band's opening number.

The first thing Sarah heard was a really good sax player. It sounded retro. Sarah loved retro. The band had started playing and the mysterious singer was on stage but Sarah couldn't see him since his body was framed by backlight and smoke. She felt an oddly strong magnetism pulling her towards the shadowy figure. She pushed her way through the throngs of squealing fangirls to the foot of the stage with her flatmates following in her wake. "Wait for the cheekbones," a voice beside her said. Sarah looked next to her and saw the girl in black from the bathroom staring up at the figure before them in pure adoration. Suddenly the lights came on full force. That's when Sarah saw them, those cheekbones! She screamed in recognition but it was drowned out by the other screams of adulation coming from the packed audience. She stared dumbfounded as his satin voice melted her core and teased her senses. _Don't tell me truth hurts little girl, cuz it hurts like hell._ Sarah couldn't make out the words or their meaning. She had been temporarily paralyzed by those cheekbones. The same ones! Again! She must be crazy or could it possibly be him? Sarah took a look at the whole man in all of his glory but he still was not the Jareth she remembered. He was a more modern hipsterish version of the Goblin King in a long leather overcoat. He looked very similar, nearly identical, to Francis. And yet he couldn't be Francis either. The singer in front of her looked slightly older, had lighter hair and was possibly a couple inches taller.

Finally shaking off her immobility, Sarah pushed her way to the side of the stage, "Watch it!" the pale girl in black complained and Sarah could faintly hear Masha and Melissa shouting for her to wait but she didn't care or listen—she had to get to that man—whoever or whatever he was.

 _Et voilà! Another Jareth-y person since you can never have enough! I miss the real Jareth with his glitter and tights so he will probably make an appearance soon. I apologize for continuing to complicate the plot but I promise all will be revealed! As soon as I figure out what is going on. Again please let me know what you think or if I have made a huge error(s) somewhere (I am newb)! Reviews make me happier than what might be considered healthy so keep 'em coming :D The title for this chapter is from Young Americans since Sarah is a young American in London going a bit wild tonight._


	4. Don't believe I'm forgetting you

_Disclaimer: I own nothing (especially a social life which is why this chapter has appeared less than a day later than the previous I am being consumed by this story). But be warned, I am about to do something very mean to you guys and Sarah. I'm teaching everyone a lesson:this is why you shouldn't drink too much (soju)! But, to be honest, I am just a huge troll :P_

CHAPTER 4: Don't believe for just one second I'm forgetting you

Sarah woke up the next morning after a long dreamless sleep with a slight headache and a horrible chunk of memory missing. "Oh gawd, what did I do at that club?" Sarah immediately demanded. She remembered seeing another Jareth double and rushing to the stairs at the side of the stage but everything after that crucial moment was a blur. She jumped out of her bed to go find out from Melissa and Masha what had happened. She found Masha lounging on the couch watching BBC Breakfast while sipping on an alka-seltzer. "Masha what happened after I ran off from you guys in that club last night?" Sarah demanded somewhat panicky.

"You can't remember?" Masha asked, "I didn't think you had _that_ much to drink."  
"Neither did I," Sarah agreed heading to the kitchen for a much needed glass of water. "And what's weird is I remember after that when we were walking home. I was whining about missing Toby and Melissa told us about her crush on some barrista," Sarah continued.

"Yeah you're right," Masha pondered then stated, "That's strange." Sarah sat on the couch next to her friend and dropped an alka-seltzer in her water. "Well I'm not entirely sure what happened after you body tackled that guy while he was singing."

Sarah groaned, "Nooo. Please tell me you're joking. I didn't do that."

Masha laughed, "You sure did! And all of those fan girls were up in arms about it. That one chick next to us who was all decked out in black tried to follow you and tackle him too but a bouncer finally appeared and restrained her. She kept screaming 'She's not a proper fan! She's married!' or something like that. Then some old blond lady was shouting that you were married to Jareth which was hilarious and then some tiny redhead said you and Jareth had a ton of children. It was a mess. Very funny though."

Sarah listened to Masha's story with her head in her hands just wanting to crawl in a hole and die. All those jokes she made last night about being married to Jareth suddenly were not funny to her anymore. As much as she wanted that singer to be Jareth before, she now hoped it was all just a huge coincidence or a massive drunken mirage. She groaned and downed the alka-seltzer.

"Well what happened next, were we kicked out?" Sarah asked hoping the story couldn't get any worse. She wanted to grab last-night Sarah and shake her senseless.

"No. That really gorgeous singer carried you off behind the stage and we couldn't get to you till about ten minutes later. You were acting all spaced out and gooey. A bouncer was there looking after you, but your singer had disappeared without a trace. So we grabbed you and then tried to sneak out the back—you kind of ruined the show ya know. Women were rioting out there. You didn't say anything about what happened when we tried to ask you about it and you kind of acted like the whole thing didn't happen. It was weird. And it's weird you can't remember that bit. You didn't accept any strange drinks from any strange men last night did you?" Masha asked a bit worried.

Sarah just shook her head somberly when Melissa appeared from the bathroom freshly showered and made up.

"Good morning Mrs. Jareth!" she teased Sarah. Then laughed along with Masha while Sarah blushed hoping that terrible joke would die out very soon.

"Ohh don't say that. I hate myself right now for going along with that," Sarah pleaded covering her face with her hands in despair.

"But you are wearing your faux engagement ring!" Melissa said pointing at a ring on Sarah's left hand. Sarah looked expecting to find a the grubby straw wrapper she had fashioned into a ring but instead saw a familiar ruby ring. Sarah looked in horror at the offending object. It was the ring given to her by her mother so many years ago. She thought she would never see it again! She gave it to the wiseman in Jareth's labyrinth! How did it suddenly return to her finger? It must mean that the singer from last night had to be Jareth! Did he give it back to her? Sarah thought removing the ring from her ring finger, but that thought disappeared from her mind when she saw the time.

"Oh my gosh! I have to get ready!" she cried when finally realized she had to leave in an hour for rehearsal. Quickly grabbing a bathrobe, Sarah headed for the bathroom hoping a nice warm shower would help her remember her follies from last night and especially a vital ten minute chunk in which anything could have happened.

Sarah reached the studio space on time and feeling a little better after a quick coffee and yogurt parfait. She forced herself to ignore the fact that she might have met Jareth last night and instead wanted to be completely professional and involved in her acting. Nothing meant more to Sarah than becoming a legendary stage actress. Getting too distracted now might jeopardize that dream. She took the elevator up to the third floor and when the elevator doors open she caught the tail end of Charles yelling at his unresponsive nephew, "Honestly a baboon could handle this job better than you could!" But he stopped as soon as he saw Sarah, "My dear you are looking bright and healthy this morning! You must have had some good beauty sleep!" She scoffed but he couldn't have heard it as he walked over to her and took her arm, "I want to work on your first scene with Ron if that's alright?" Then he quickly whispered to her, "I wish that boy would get something right one of these days. He mislaid my notes from the read through. But it's no matter I had so little to correct I can remember most of what I need." Sarah felt a little bad for Charles's nephew. She resolved to try and talk to him at some point to see if she could help the strained relationship between the two.

The rehearsal went slowly because Ron had a method of learning his lines during rehearsal to help him get into the character's proper mindset. Sarah had of course learned all of her lines by heart a few days after getting her script. Her knack for learning lines quickly was a trick she suddenly picked up immediately after her journey through Jareth's labyrinth. Her flawless recitations greatly impressed the crew and Charles who were all getting a bit stressed out from Ron's constant flubbing. When it was decided that they all deserved a large break for lunch, Sarah finally caught a glimpse of Francis. He was hiding in the corner of the room and had apparently been watching their struggling rehearsal for quite some time. He was wearing a very TopMan look with a long blue and white striped shirt covered by a dark blue bomber jacket and lightly ripped and skintight black jeans. He definitely looked like a gorgeous model but Sarah was surprised to find that his affect on her today was not one of attraction but of wariness. That was strange after all now she knew that he couldn't be Jareth since she had apparently tackled Jareth last night. Even when she thought back to her previous chemistry with Francis, the not-kiss they shared and the way he caressed her hand, she felt nothing but uneasiness in his presence now. Perhaps noticing her nerves, Francis smiled pleasantly at her and said, "You were very good out there."

"Thank you," she smiled in return and her nerves immediately washed away. She was struck by how innocent and kind he was. He was obviously just a regular man. Why she just felt fleeting distrust Sarah had no idea. She ended up dismissing her random feelings as arbitrary after-effects of her wild night last night.

She was about to ask if he was going anywhere for lunch when Charles shouted from behind her, "Come Francis, we need to work on your first monologue!"

"I have been summoned," Francis said to her with a wry grin and Sarah smiled back as she continued on her way out to find an interesting lunch spot.

She paused at the elevator and turned on a whim when she decided to talk to Charles's assistant/nephew. "Hey," she said but he didn't reply or look up from his tablet, "I'm looking for a cool and fast lunch spot around here. Do you have any suggestions?"

The youth quickly replied with eyes still glued to his tablet, "I personally like 'Hummus Bros' but I'm vegetarian. If you are looking for meat I'm told 'Herman ze German' is good."

"Hummus sounds good right now I think I need something light," Sarah said then asked, "When do you get your lunch?"  
"Uncle Charles doesn't let me leave the desk when he isn't here. And he doesn't like letting delivery men inside the studio. When he goes on lunch break I'll go grab some food," he explained.

"Oh but Charles is still working and it is already way past lunchtime," Sarah said looking at her phone clock which read 2:25. The hipster boy just shrugged and continued watching his tablet. Sarah glanced over to see what he was watching, it was a cooking video. The poor kid must be starving so she offered, "How about I grab you some hummus from Hummus Bros while I am there?" Finally the boy looked up at her. Behind his hipster glasses she saw that he had lovely brown eyes. In an odd way he reminded her of Ludo. He couldn't be more than 16 years old.

He said, "Could you? I'm starving. I'm Chaz by the way."  
"Of course! What would you like Chaz? I'm Sarah by the way," Sarah said smiling.

"I know," Chaz smiled back at her suddenly ignoring his tablet completely. Sarah was happy, it looked as though she had just gained a new friend.

She returned later after waiting in a long queue for their hummus or 'houmus' as everyone else seemed to call it here. She sat and ate the delicious hummus with vegetables and pita with Chaz. He turned out to have a lovely personality but he was a bit shy. Sarah learned that he just finished secondary school and really wanted to work as a stage producer. He was disappointed to only have his Uncle Charles assign him to secretarial work when his mother tried to get him a kind of apprenticeship. Sarah was about to give him an inspiring speech to give him the confidence to discuss his work with Charles himself when a frazzled young woman appeared from the door to the rehearsal stage and shouted "Ms. Williams you are needed on set!"

"Bye Chaz gotta go!" she said getting up to leave.

"Bye Sarah, thanks for the food," he said smiling at her as she left.

Sarah then spent the next three hours working with Francis on the scene where their characters first meet.

"You are a beautiful man," she stated with conviction only partially in character as Leo.

Francis as Julian gave a convincing startled reply, "I hope you don't say that to every strange man you meet!"

"Only the beautiful ones," she teased and winked at him. As talented as Francis was he couldn't capture the proper meekness in that moment that Charles was trying to get him to portray. Every time Sarah winked, he looked as if he wanted to carry her off to explore more of her boldness—stage production be damned! Their chemistry had returned ten-fold and Sarah found it hard to concentrate on her own character. They ended up working for such a long time on positioning and Francis's body language that they didn't get past those first few lines and Charles said, "Sarah you can go get some dinner while I work with Francis a bit more. But please come back in an hour." She left with a parting glance at Francis who was looking at her hungrily—for food? Sarah felt a small shiver then left the space and headed back to Chaz.

"Do we have any hummus left?" she asked him then dragged a chair nearby to his desk so she could sit across from him. He offered her the remaining pita and the remains of their tabouleh and lemon hummus. She hungrily ate while Chaz chatted with her.

"I guess Uncle Charles doesn't eat when he gets really worked up," he observed. "I will see if I can talk to him later about maybe offering to help him out more with the actual directing instead of just sitting here waiting for the phone to ring, which it never does."

Sarah happily encouraged him, "That's a great idea!s I'm sure your Uncle would appreciate the help." She finished up the remains of their lunch then said, "I guess I will wait for Francis until getting dinner."  
"Why are you waiting for Francis?" Chaz asked highly curious.

"He said we were going for drinks after rehearsal but since he didn't get a dinner break maybe he would rather grab food," she explained. Chaz suddenly looked very disappointed, he reached for his tablet. Sarah couldn't help but notice his mood swing, "What's wrong?"

"Oh nothing, I was just kind of hoping Francis was gay but I guess he isn't if he asked you on a date," he said gloomily.

Sarah suddenly felt guilty, "Oh sorry I didn't know you had a crush on him. Don't fret! Besides I don't think I'm really looking for a relationship right now and he could be bi maybe? Or he could just be trying to get to know me for the sake of the production."

"Hmm that's true," Chaz said sounding hopeful, "But I'll still just crush on him from afar anyways. I'd never have the balls to actually talk to him."

Sarah was getting ready to give this kid a serious pep talk but before she could Charles popped out from the behind the stage door and upon seeing her he said, "Oh good Sarah you're here! I'm sorry to cut your dinner short but we are finally making progress and if we run through with you I think we can head out early tonight."  
"Oh perfect I'll be right there!" she said excited by Charles's announcement.

On stage, she and Francis ran through their lines with perfect inflection and pacing. Their body language was perfectly subtle and their movements exact. Even when Sarah winked at Francis, she found that he was finally able to summon up an air of awkwardness that belied his true nature. At the end Charles was so happy with their performance, he was clapping and jumping up and down. "Perfect, perfect! Let's lock it in!" he shouted, "A few more times from the beginning if you please."

Sarah and Francis began again repeating their perfect performance from the last time. This time, Sarah had time to observe Francis's amazing technique. When she told him he was beautiful, his face twitched very slightly which betrayed the repressed excitement and latent sexuality in his character. Sarah was highly impressed he could make himself twitch like that. After running through the scene two more times, Charles was satisfied and let them leave. Francis shed the repressed mannerisms of his shy character and walked over to Sarah grabbing her hand in his, "I think dinner is in order don't you think?" He walked her towards the door and before he opened it, he looked at her and said, "I'm famished," with a hungry expression that made Sarah tremble. She wasn't entirely sure he was thinking of food when he said that. As she walked through the open door, Sarah found it funny that their roles had completely reversed. Now he was being bold and she was being meek. What was wrong with her? Wasn't she supposed to not be very interested? They walked by Chaz who was completely absorbed again in his tablet. Francis hit the elevator button and turned to look at Sarah with that same hungry look. Then they waited in a silence so tense with desire that Sarah couldn't help feeling sorry for Chaz who was being forced to witness it.

When the elevator finally arrived after what felt like ages, Francis gestured for Sarah to go first so she waved bye and shouted "See you tomorrow Chaz!" as she stepped inside the elevator.

He looked up and although obviously jealous he shouted after her, "Bye Sarah!"

Then Francis entered the elevator behind her as she mentally tried to brace herself for what promised to be another interesting night. Hopefully this time she will be able to remember it.

 _End scene! Sorry for all the food in this bit I was hungry when I wrote it. I felt like a had to include a scene where Sarah befriends a loner since her knack for making friends was what I loved most about her character in the movie. And I'm sorry about the fake out with the blacking out the fun bits. I promise you will all eventually find out what happened after Sarah was alone with her singer-Jareth. But first get ready for a steamy night out with her actor-Jareth! And pretty soon Jareth-Jareth will be making an appearance :D In the meantime please R &R lmk what you think might happen (I might have to steal your ideas since I am about just as much in the dark as Sarah is rn) FYI the title of this chapter is from Dollar Days which is my second favorite song off of DB's Blackstar._


	5. Sway through the crowd to an empty space

_Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth. I do not even own this story it owns me. It is now more than a week old hooray! Happy birthday story! And a Happy belated Valentines Day! Which I celebrated by eating a whole pizza by myself then watching Memento (least romantic movie ever) with my parents. Forever alone. Anyways onto a romantic scene:_

CHAPTER 5: Sway through the crowd to an empty space

As soon as the elevator doors closed Francis moved in on Sarah who backed up until she was trapped by the wall on one side and his lithe body on the other. He placed his hand beside her head and leaned towards her, "He seemed jealous of us."

"Who?" Sarah asked unable to think of anything or anyone, entranced as she was by those amazingly blue eyes. Usually she would be put off by such domineering behavior but she couldn't help but find Francis's unapologetically masculinity alluring.

"The receptionist was jealous. He must fancy you," he gave her a smug smile then leaned to whisper in her ear, "I'm obviously a lucky man." The elevator reached the bottom floor and opened its doors.

Sarah finally registered what he was saying and burst out laughing. Francis leaned back and looked at her in confusion. "You're half right," she explained but she did not elaborate for Chaz's sake. She was still chuckling as she ducked under Francis's arm leaving him cold and alone in the elevator. She headed for the front door feeling more emboldened from her private joke.

"Do you have any restaurant preferences?" Francis asked from beside her.

"No," Sarah said, a bit startled by his sudden appearance but also pleased by his consideration, "I'm new in town so I don't know the hot spots."

"Any religious restrictions, horrible allergies, aversions to meat, or fears of gluten that I should know about?" Francis asked as he opened the giant front door for her.

"None whatsoever. I enjoy all foods and I love new experiences," Sarah answered walking outside into the brisk night air.

"Good, I know a place very close by," He answered, following her out. Once the huge door closed, Sarah couldn't help but sneak a quick glance back at the odd scorch marks on the building. She was relieved to find that tonight they were just scorch marks and no face appeared. It must have been a mirage that she saw last night.

"This is where we first met," Francis said.

"Right. And you came to my rescue," Sarah blushed as she remembered her struggle with the misleading door and Francis's ensuing embrace.

"I did didn't I?" Francis looked amused and reached for Sarah's hand, "Funny, I never considered myself the heroic type." She wasn't sure what to make of that as he grabbed her hand and hooked it in the crook of his arm. He led her down the street like that, arm in arm. Sarah had never been so elegantly escorted. He certainly didn't act like the typical 'bloke' that she was used to. There was something very strange about him that made Sarah question her assumption that the real Jareth was the singer she had apparently met last night. When they turned the corner, Sarah noticed a humungous queue. People were lined up down the side walk and even across the street in front of them. As they continued walking along the line of people, Sarah saw the source spilling out from a mod little restaurant that simply said BAO.

Sarah commented on the line as they walked by the waiting couples, "Good thing we aren't' eating at that place. I could never bear such a long wait."

"Oh but we are eating here," Francis replied leading her through the crowded doorway and past several angry looking couples.

"Um don't we have to wait in line?" she asked him. For a moment she couldn't help thinking that he was unfamiliar with how queues work because he wasn't wholly human.

Frances didn't answer her and instead walked her up to the young hostess near the door. He unhinged himself from Sarah and leaned to whisper something in the hostess's ear. Sarah stared at the young girl as her eyes popped open and her jaw dropped from whatever Francis told her. She hurried off into the loud and crowded restaurant. "What did you say to her?" Sarah asked, highly curious.

"I just told her who I was is all," he answered then winked at her, "I must be well known from my work in the underground." His lingering look suggested he meant more than what he was saying. Sarah was quickly getting annoyed with the whole air of mystery he had going on. If he has something to do with the Labyrinth he should go ahead and just say it. Before she could do anything stupid like confront him about it, the girl returned carrying a large box, "Here you go Monsieur Bonhomme! The boss says he wishes you had time to stay and if you want he could find you some room,"

Sarah looked around the tiny restaurant where people were nearly seated on top of each other. Where the 'boss' could find room she had no idea. Francis took the box from the hostess and answered, "Not this time thank you but do please tell your boss that I said 'We'll try no manhood here!' He'll understand." The girl nodded enthusiastically in reply, then Francis turned to Sarah and said, "Let's go, I know an empty space."

Sarah held open the door for Francis and his box. The couples who were still waiting looked on in jealous anger. "I take it you know the owner well then?" Sarah asked trying to hurry him away from the angry and hungry mob staring them down. Francis refused to change his leisurely pace and merely answered, "I did him a favor once. Hurry this way." He unexpectedly took off around the corner and Sarah tried to follow him but found it hard to keep up with his sudden brisk pace. Francis led her across another street, then another, then down an alley leading to a small dark passageway that culminated in an ornately locked gate where he paused, waiting for her to catch up. When she finally did catch up to him she was panting slightly and thinking that she really needed to get some exercise. He kicked the gate twice and on the second kick it smoothly swung open to reveal a small courtyard housing a small haven of plants and flowers that did not look native to the English climate. Sarah gasped, "This is beautiful! Is it yours?"

"No it's my friends. He never uses it though so I thought it would do well for a makeshift picnic," He answered placing the box on the ground. He gracefully lowered himself to the ground as Sarah looked up at the suddenly visible moon that she hadn't caught sight of since moving to London. The atmosphere in the tiny courtyard was enchanting. Francis took off his bomber jacket and placed it lightly on the grass right beside him. "Here come take a seat," he patted his jacket, "I apologize for the lack of proper seating arrangements but I hope the food will make up for it." Sarah sat on his jacket, slightly surprised he sacrificed such a fine piece of clothing for her comfort. She smiled, he couldn't be Jareth after all.

"So Ms. Williams, did you suddenly get engaged since we met yesterday?" Francis asked as opened the box of delicious-smelling food. Sarah gasped, she had completely forgotten about the ring! She absentmindedly began to rotate it around her finger, "No. It was a gift from my mother."

"Linda Williams," Francis asked in a way that was more like a sombre statement. "Tell me about her," he demanded while offering her a beautifully crafted bao bun.

Sarah stopped rotating her ring to accept the bun. She started to explain, "My mother left when I was 12 to pursue her stage career on Broadway. That's when she gave me this ring. She got really famous on Broadway."

Sarah took a tentative bite from the spongy bun. It was delicious! Tender lamb and a tangy green sauce! She moaned in enthusiasm at the amazing blend of flavors erupting on her tongue. She looked at Francis who didn't appear to be eating. He was staring intensely at her, not touching any of the other buns still in the box. He broke his heated gaze to pour out a steaming liquid from an apple green thermal into tiny cups.

"Go on," he urged handing her one of the tiny cups.

Sarah took a sip of what she discerned to be a delicious ginseng tea then continued, "The more famous my mom got the less I saw of her. Eventually when I got to NYU, she up and left for London to star in some tv costume drama as the rich American wife the same day I moved in." Sarah would have been more upset about what she was saying but the amazing food was too distracting. She quickly finished up the tiny lamb bao then practically snatched the next bun Francis held out to her. In between mouthfuls Sarah continued, "I barely saw her while I was in college and _then_!" Sarah paused for dramatic affect, and also for a large bite of the spicy chicken bao, "When I got this amazing opportunity from Charles, I called her up to ask if I could stay with her in her huge flat in Kensington," Sarah gobbled up the rest of her chicken bun then held out her hand to Francis who was sadly slacking in his bun-offering duties, "She turned me down with some flimsy excuse,"

Francis smiled and handed her another bun and asked, "What excuse?"

Sarah greedily snatched the bun and took a bite. It was the best pork she had ever tasted! Pure ecstasy! Not bothering to wait until she was finished chewing, she answered, "She said she didn't have enough room for me at her place! She's barely ever there! And it is humongous! Room for a tennis court and a—a pony!" Bits of bun flew from her mouth as soon as she said 'pony' and landed on the ground next to Francis. Sarah was horrified by her unattractive eating but Francis just laughed. And Sarah found that despite her longtime hurt over her mother's continued rejection, she laughed too. It was all so silly. When they had both finished laughing, Sarah said more seriously, "I wonder if she doesn't have room for me in her life anymore. I haven't even heard from her since I moved in to London.

"That will change soon," Francis said. Sarah looked at him, he was finally just starting to eat his own bao. He had said that so assuredly. She knew he wasn't just saying that to be kind. But how could he possibly know what her mother was going to do? While he was eating, she decided to fish for a few answers of her own, "So do you have any family? Anyone in London? Anyone else involved in the arts?" Sarah hoped to find the connection between Francis and his double from last night who had apparently given her the ring she was still wearing. With no more food to occupy her hands, Sarah began to fiddle with the ring again waiting for Francis to answer her loaded questions.

"To answer your questions, no, no, and no," was all he said much to Sarah's disappointment. It must be a coincidence then, she thought glumly. Although, she should be happy that he was just a normal bloke who liked her and took her to this magical—well beautiful, it couldn't really be magical—oasis in the middle of Soho. Francis was safe and sweet. Not dangerous and cunning like a certain abnormal 'bloke' she knew.

"Did your mother say anything when she gave you that ring?" Francis asked interrupting Sarah's thoughts.

"Why are you so interested in my mother?" she asked. She had a sudden urge to be flirty so she teased him in a playful voice, "Do you have a thing for older ladies by any chance?"

Francis froze mid bite. Sarah immediately lost all inspiration to be flirty at his peculiar response. He put his bun down then leaned towards Sarah and gazed into her eyes, "You are very beautiful you know. And so talented," he whispered to her, leaning even closer. Sarah was confused by the rollercoaster ride of emotions this date was turning out to be. But she couldn't help the intense feelings of warmth and excitement that erupted inside her as he leaned even closer, so close that his exquisite mouth hovered over her own trembling lips. "You're like my very own Vivien Leigh," he whispered, his warm breath tickling her face. She closed her eyes in expectation of exquisite fulfillment when all of a sudden she pictured Jareth's unforgettable face, as clear as day warning her, "Be wary of Francis precious. And whatever you do, DO NOT kiss him." Shocked, Sarah opened her eyes and turned from Francis abruptly saying, "I think I would prefer to be Olivier." And with that the romantic mood was shattered.

Francis stared at her in dumb amazement but quickly recovered to ask her nonchalantly, "Why's that?" He leaned back and began to clean up their tiny picnic.

"He was the better actor," Sarah answered looking around at the unfamiliar flowers surrounding them.

When he finished clearing up, Francis escorted her out of the garden and back to her flat. On the way, they chatted about Sarah, her roommates, her life in New York, her family, and her dog. Whenever Sarah tried to ask Francis a personal question, he found a way to divert the subject back to her. By the time they reached Sarah's flat, Francis knew all about her and she knew next to nothing about him except that he had no family, no roommates, no dog, and he doesn't come from London or France. Sarah was worried he would try to kiss her again but Francis merely kissed her hand as he did when they first met and said, "Thank you for a wonderful evening Sarah."

"No! Thank you Francis! I really did have a wonderful time," Sarah said in all honesty.

"I will see you again tomorrow," he said before dropping her hand. Sarah smiled and turned to let herself into the front door. Getting it open, she turned to look at Francis.

"Goodbye," she said and smiled a little shyly. He smiled in return then she shut the door as he departed. Inside Sarah turned and leaned heavily against the door. She was furious with herself for conjuring up Jareth's image. It was obviously her overactive imagination reacting to a little sexual tension and completely ruining the best first date she had ever been on. From her position on the door she could see the picture of that stupid owl hanging above the couch. "Stupid curmudgeon," she grumbled to herself as she stared at the chubby barn owl. Then quite suddenly, the owl image morphed into that same face she had just pictured as she was about to kiss Francis. Sarah gasped. It must be another Jareth mirage! But when she blinked and peered closer, his face remained. And what's more, he looked _pissed_.

 _Ende! Well Ende for now. Please review and stay tuned! The infamous singer-Jareth confrontation will finally be revealed next chapter! It will be a doozy! I should say that Bao is a real restaurant famous for amazing food and long lines. (I do not own it) I have only eaten there and wish to recommend it to all. Also I want to mention that my inspiration for the numerous Jareth faces comes from the hidden faces that appear in the movie. (Search for them on Youtube if you don't know what I mean). The title of this chapter is from Let's Dance!_


	6. Your eyes can be so cruel

_Disclaimer: I do not own Labyrinth. I do not own Skype. I do not own Words with Friends. I am just a fangirl. Not the naughty 1930s kind but the more 'normal' 2010s kind. Speaking of naughtiness, since I've meanly made you all wait so long for Jareth-Jareth, there is a juicy reward waiting for you in this chapter ;p_

Chapter 6: Your eyes can be so cruel

Sarah's heart raced when she saw that angry look directed at her. It was coming from what should have been a harmless owl print. Feeling panicky, she thought she saw a movement in the darkness out of the corner of her eye. Sarah quickly turned but nothing was there there. She couldn't shake the feeling that history was repeating itself. Any moment now, she expected to hear claws at the window. Sarah looked out the window but all she saw was empty darkness. When she turned back to the print, the face was gone. A cute little owl stared back at her innocently. The room was completely still and she was absolutely alone. Not even her roommates were home. _I'm not going crazy! I definitely just saw a face just now!_ Sarah knew it had been there. This time it couldn't be a mirage. _That's it! I need some answers now!_ Frustrated, she rushed into her bedroom. She moved to stand before full length mirror on her wall and called, "Hoggle I need you!" She waited for a few moments then tried again, "Please Hoggle!" Sarah was about to give up when she heard a familiar rough voice, "Sarah, is that you?" Sarah peered in the mirror and saw standing in the corner of her room her oldest and dearest friend. "Hoggle it's you!" She was ecstatic to see him. It had been years since she last talked to him ever since he warned her to contact him more sparingly before she left for college. He did not elaborate on why but she acquiesced to his desperate pleas, a little hurt by his apparent rejection. Looking at him now, Sarah thought he appeared the same as ever. He wore the same clothes, the same pouch of treasures, and the same plastic bracelet she had given him so many years ago.

Hoggle looked happy to see her but when he spoke his gruff voice sounded scared, "Sarah is something wrong? I told you it was dangerous for you to be contacting me."

"But why Hoggle?" she questioned, "I contact Sir Didymus all the time and he never mentions any danger. We play scrabble on Words with Friends." Pausing to consider what she just said, Sarah admitted with a small laugh, "I never realized how odd that was until I just said it out loud." Then she continued more seriously, "Is there something strange happening in the Labyrinth?"

"No, no, everything is peaceful in the Goblin City. A bit too peaceful if ya ask me. Them goblins are always up ta no good," Hoggle grumbled staring at the ground in annoyance.

"Is the Goblin King there?" Sarah asked ignoring Hoggle's distant behavior.

Hoggle looked up at her in shock, "You shouldn't be asking questions like that! You're looking to be causing all sorts of trouble again."

Sarah cajoled him, "Please Hoggle, I think he might be following me here in London. But if he is underground, I could be wrong."

Hoggle was silent, but Sarah knew that he could never outright deny a request from her. She waited patiently and a moment later she was rewarded when Hoggle sighed and answered her, "I haven't seen or heard of Jareth in a while. But he must be in the kingdom because whenever he leaves for extended periods he leaves an interim ruler in charge. When that happens, there are really big parties and festivals in the city but none of that has happened since…" he paused to sigh again, then continued, "It hasn't happened in a very long time."

"One more thing!" she quickly remembered, "Have you seen the wiseman lately?"

"Not since he got that new hat," Hoggle answered freely. Then he looked at her, thoughtful and a little suspicious, "Why you askin'?"

Sarah held up her left hand in response, "Remember this?"

Hoggle looked at her ring with wide eyes and open mouth. "How did you get that Sarah?" he asked in whispered amazement.

"I'm not sure Hoggle. I'm not sure what is going on. Can you ask around to see if any plots are afoot? I might be in danger. Toby might be in danger. Please, I need you Hoggle," she gave Hoggle her best puppy dog look and she could see him struggling to find the courage to help her.

"Mmm alright," he grumbled, courage finally winning over his cowardice, "Even though it will be risky and dangerous for me! I better go now. Goodbye Sarah."

Sarah squealed in excitement, "Thank you thank you Hoggle! I could kiss you!"

"Don't even think about it!" Hoggle covered his face with his hands in fear. Sarah giggled, she never found out why Hoggle was so averse to her kisses. It must be a dwarf thing. Before he left she made sure to warn, "Please do be careful! And I'll ask Sir Didymus to look out too. Good night Hoggle. It was good to see you again!"

As the image of her old friend faded she heard him grumbling something unintelligible but she swore she caught sight of a small blush on the old dwarf's wrinkled face. She changed for bed feeling much better. She pulled out her phone to check on her Words with Friends game, round 73, with Sir Didymus. After building 'noxious' off of his 'nose' she sent him a quick message asking him how he could be playing this game with her. Could he have a smartphone and wifi in the underground? She also made sure to ask him if he had noticed anything strange going on. Once Sarah had finished getting ready for bed, she received a notification. Sir Didymus had promptly replied to her message.

 _Lady Sarah,_

 _I am not sure what you mean by smartphone and wifi. Could you possibly be referring to my magical scrabble scrying board which was awarded to me after I saved a magician from an evil troll wizard? It allows one to play scrabble with whomever they wish, wherever they may be. It also allows one to write magical letters as we are doing now. As to your second inquiry, I have not smelt anything amiss. But I shall endeavor to ascertain the latest news on your behalf. Gallantly yours,_

 _Sir Didymus_

Sarah smiled at her other old friend's helpfulness. She went to bed feeling much more in control of the chaos that had been threatening her social life and career.

After a short and dreamless sleep, Sarah was woken by a loud notification from her phone. Groggy, she checked the time, 12:00. Sarah had received another message from Sir Didymus. His reply came sooner than she had expected. She was tempted to go back to sleep and leave it for the morning but her incessant desire to find out what was going on forced her to read it right away.

 _I say My Lady,_

 _Since writing the above, I have discovered that one of our mutual friends, the valiant dwarf Sir Toggle, is to be thrown headfirst into the bog of eternal stench tomorrow morning for committing various crimes against the crown. Frightfully sad! But then again, the bog has no stench so it will only be a temporary discomfort. Curious misnomer that bog of stench. In other news, the wiseman's old hat has joined the gang of fireys in the forest. Anyways that is the current gossip here. Do drop by when you are next in the vicinity._

 _Gallantly yours,_

 _Sir Didymus_

Sarah shot up from her bed. Hoggle was in trouble! And it was her fault! It must have been because of her questions and her selfish demand that he help her. Sarah should never have asked him to put himself in danger of Jareth's wrath. The King could be such a bully, especially where Hoggle was concerned for some odd reason. Sarah needed to do something! She had to find some way to rescue Hoggle immediately! But she was not entirely sure how to do that without finding some way back to the Labyrinth. She briefly considered wishing herself away but she wasn't sure that was possible—or safe. She wondered if there was some kind of back entrance she could sneak into. Just then, inspiration struck! Sarah knew exactly where she had to go.

An hour later Sarah stood outside a faintly familiar club where throngs of distressed girls were being turned away from the door. Sarah smiled, _he must be singing tonight_. She hurriedly snuck around the corner, making her way to the secluded back entrance that she and her roommates discovered the night before. She found it hidden away at the end of a dark stairway. Somewhere nearby music from the band was leaking outside through some unseen source. Sarah looked around and found that a small hole in a wooden board offered a peephole to the stage. She peered through the hole and immediately she saw _him,_ singing. Sarah was drawn in by that beautiful voice as if by some magic spell. Hearing it so clearly caused something within her to react, her surroundings melted away and some distant and forgotten memory began to take shape…

 _It's only forever, not long at all…_

Oblivious to the words he was singing but drawn by some invisible force, Sarah pushed and shoved her way through the dense crowd of women towards the small set of stairs at the side of the stage. "Sarah wait! Where are you going?" she could vaguely hear Masha shouting over the blaring music. Sarah didn't bother to answer and continued her struggle to the crowd until she finally reached the stairs. At the top step stood an ominous bouncer. Sarah wasn't sure how to get past this guard so she pulled the oldest trick in the book, "Look!" she shouted and pointed to her right. Amazingly enough, the guy turned and looked, so she quickly ducked past his left and around the corner to the wing heading back stage. Unfortunately she ran right into a large object blocking the way, "Hey!" the obstacle shouted. Sarah looked up at another big bouncer. Behind her the first bouncer was coming to apprehend her. With all other exits blocked, Sarah quickly retreated the only way she could, onto the stage. As fast as she was going, she did not notice the wire that had somehow snaked its way around the heel of her dammed boot. Before she could do anything to save herself, Sarah was falling full force to the ground. But she didn't fall very far. Her heavy descent was miraculously absorbed by a firm body that refused to be knocked down. Sarah grabbed instinctively at her savior and she was overwhelmed with conflicting feelings of excited fear and hesitant comfort at the contact. Powerful arms pulled her up until she was staring into a leonine face. _The face. It was him._ Although the music of the loud band continued playing around her, everything froze in a still silence for Sarah as deeply-rooted memories and blooming desires flooded her senses. In that moment, a pair of mesmerizing eyes anchored her fragile sanity—one appraising her with it's blue stare the other a mysterious black pool save for the slim echo of blue round the outside. Sarah forgot how to breathe. It was as if everything she had ever experienced in her life was leading to this one exquisite moment of recognition. And then, just as quickly as this strange state of mind overpowered her, Sarah regained some semblance of lucidity. She could hear that the band had finally stopped. Women were shouting angrily about her being 'married' and she even heard some shouting 'Jareth' but Sarah was unsure what they meant. She was still having trouble thinking about anything other than the beautifully familiar face grinning down at her. _Jareth._ He looked amused to see her. When Sarah finally registered the triumph in his expression, she immediately felt like she had fallen into some sort of trap. He hoisted her into an undignified bundle over his shoulder and whisked her off stage. From her vantage point over his backside, Sarah could see unhappy fans in the audience and the confused band members on stage. She also couldn't help but admire the fine posterior of her former adversary. So lithe and graceful yet so deliciously masculine. Sarah laughed at her unexpected lustful thoughts. Perhaps it was the drinks or her awareness of the absurdity of this whole situation, but Sarah couldn't stop laughing even as Jareth dumped her unceremoniously on some hard surface in the claustrophobic backstage area. She barely noticed through her laughing fit that another presence was there asking "Everything alright Monty?"

"Something has come up. Go on without me," Jareth answered in an uncharacteristic cockney accent without tearing his gaze from Sarah. When the other person retreated and left the two of them alone in the dark and enclosed space, her laughter finally subsided. She started to grasp the danger of her situation. It was definitely Jareth standing over her now even though he was in some sort of disguise and apparently calling himself 'Monty' now. His carnivorous smile made her realize that she clearly hadn't thought this through. She had conveniently forgotten that there was something of a score to settle between them. Some teenage version of herself had foolishly believed that he would kiss her senseless and propose on the spot like some Disney prince if they ever met again. Fat chance. This was Jareth. He was dangerous and competitive to a fault. He could very well try to get revenge which would be easy right now given her slight drunkenness. She hadn't been thinking when she flew to him like a moth to a flame. _So stupid!_ She wasn't prepared to take him on right now. Determined to save herself, Sarah pulled herself up to standing then tried to leave while avoiding contact with his entirely too close body, "I'm sorry—Monty was it?—I must have mistook you for someone else."

Sarah was thankful that her acting skill was able to hide her growing panic, but Jareth saw through her bluff. Gripping her shoulders, he roughly forced her to sit back down on what must have been an amplifier. Then he said in his real voice, "Now, now, Sarah. I thought you learned your lesson that things aren't always what they seem. Shall I have to teach it to you again?" His grip on her relaxed and he leaned in until his face hovered inches from hers, a challenge in his eyes, "It's no matter to me, I assure you I'm going to enjoy our second round much more than our first."

Sarah made a last-ditch effort to save herself as she said, with much more gusto than she was feeling, "Don't misunderstand me _Jareth_. I know it's you." She pushed back against his chest with a great physical and mental effort, "I just mistook you for my costar at first. He looks just like you. But _younger_. Could you possibly be his father?" Jareth's smile immediately disappeared and he looked livid. Oh she must have struck a chord. Out of nowhere, a quick and violent wind whipped around her and blew Jareth's disguise away in a cloud of glittering magic. Standing before Sarah was the mighty and seething Goblin King in all his ethereal glory. He wore a cropped black leather jacket over a thin white shirt unbuttoned down to his belly button and incredibly tight, sprayed-on, black trousers.

"This _obviously_ infantile costar of yours sounds like he could make a valuable addition to my goblin army. I am always in need of more footmen," Jareth threatened his stance over her much more regal now that he was in full form.

Sarah was thrilled to see the Goblin King she remembered, but she knew she mustn't let it show. She forced herself to appear nonchalant and she stood, not quite face-to-face with Jareth, but almost. She felt a little bolder. Maybe she could take Jareth on if it was going to be this easy to get under his skin. But she still had to be careful, it was when he angry like this that he tended to throw snakes at her or send murderous machines after her.

"Francis Bonhomme is no baby. He is older than me. But definitely younger than you," Sarah was surprised to notice a flicker of recognition when she told him Francis's name. The look was quickly replaced by his fury, but still Sarah continued recklessly, "What's the matter? Is an old curmudgeon like you only able to take on babies and teenagers?" Sarah was both impressed and terrified by her own brazen words.

Jareth growled at her in fury and flattened her with his body against the amplifier behind her. He must have been trying to force her to sit again, but Sarah was determined to stand her ground. Unfortunately that meant that she had to press her cleavage against his bare chest just to keep upright. Well it should have been unfortunate but Sarah was nearly delirious from the feverous desire his full-frontal contact was instilling in her. She had never been so turned on in all her life and all she wanted right now was _more_.

"You will regret saying that little girl," he promised through clenched teeth. He was looking down at her with half-lidded eyes. But Sarah knew she could never regret this feeling, if provoking Jareth could be this sexy, she had to find out what would happen if he completely lost his cool.

So she decided to up her game, "How can you call me little girl when the proof of my womanhood is rubbing against your chest?"

She saw Jareth's eyes widen and she felt more than heard his sharp intake of breath. Potent magic was rippling off of him. Sarah knew he was near his limit and she wanted—no needed—him to lose control. She wanted nothing more than to touch him but she was afraid to move. Instead they remained like that, chest to chest, tension building. Sarah nearly gave in to her desire to jump him, but before she could, ever so slightly, Jareth angled his head and leaned down to her. Sarah tilted her own head and closed her eyes in glorious expectation of an excruciatingly sensual kiss. But what she felt touch her lips was unexpected. Sarah opened her eyes to see Jareth feeding her a peach. Overwrought by her desire and confusion Sarah swallowed the peach before she even realized what she was doing. The odd yet familiar taste made her vision swim and slowly fade to black, but before she completely blacked out she saw Jareth's face immediately in front of her, "Be wary of Francis precious. And whatever you do, DO NOT kiss him." And the rest was silence.

 _TO BE CONTINUED A couple things: I named Jareth's singer disguise Monty after DB's character in the movie The Linguini Incident (which I do not own but discovered in my mourning). If you are looking for something silly/cute/really 90s it is worth a watch. And the other thing, sorry this chapter was longish I considered chopping it in two but I couldn't hold Jareth back any longer he insisted on making an appearance. More of him to come. Much much more. Please continue to read and review and let me know what you think :D I love to here from you! You should all know from what song this chapter's title is from o_O_


	7. Give me more than one caress

_Disclaimer: I don't own no nothing not ever never. Sorry for the delay. School is kicking my butt rn :/_

Chapter 7: Give me more than one caress, satisfy this hungriness

Sarah drifted to her damp and dark surroundings after reliving the heavenly sensations of her mysterious blackout from the night before. She was in a state of sexual frustration and angry desire. How could Jareth steal such a steamy encounter from her! And he used that same dumb peach trick again! Before Sarah had time to dwell on her anger, the backdoor screeched a loud warning that someone was coming. Sarah ducked behind some nearby bins. Lost somewhere in her memories, she hadn't noticed that the band had finished their set, it must be nearly 2:00 in the morning now. When the heavy door opened, Sarah's body reacted before her mind even recognized that it was Jareth, in the guise of his cockney alter-ego, stepping out into the cold dark alley with the grandeur of a king entering a grand ballroom. Sarah sucked in her breath as Jareth headed straight towards her. She was determined to remain hidden so that she could follow him to the Labyrinth and then to where he was keeping Hoggle. When he passed her, Sarah silently exhaled in relief. Jareth froze. Oh no! He must have heard her! Sarah was about to panic when she heard the door screech again. Sarah barely saw Jareth, fast as lightning, duck into a nearby shadow and completely fade from sight. Squeals erupted from the doorway and a gaggle of girls ran past Sarah's hiding spot and paused not five inches from where Jareth was hiding.

"Where'd he go?" shouted the girl Sarah recognized as Jareth/Monty's super-fan in all black from the night before. None of her companions answered, they were all busy panting from their chase.

"Hurry up you lot! He can't be far," the super-fan roused the others. Then, their brief respite over, the group took off again down the alley away from Sarah and Jareth.

Still ducked behind the bins, Sarah tried to make out Jareth in the darkness where she had last seen him. She hoped she hadn't lost him, but she couldn't see a thing. Then the shadow dispersed like smoke, revealing Jareth. He proceeded on his way and walked straight into what appeared to be a solid wall. Waiting until it was safe enough to follow, Sarah creeped to the wall and walked through. And sure enough, it wasn't a wall. She had learned not to take appearances at face value when Jareth was involved. The faux-wall led into a small and dark alley that ended at a fork. Sarah just managed to catch a glimpse of Jareth's dark leather coat disappearing around the left corner. Sarah rushed to catch up and only just managed to see Jareth take yet another left turn down an identical dark alley. Sarah was sprinting now trying to keep sight of her quarry, who somehow managed to look like he was taking a casual walk even though he was always turning corners at super-human speed. After a few more alleys, Sarah lost sight of Jareth. She reached the fork and on the spur of the moment decided to turn right—right into a hard chest.

"Ooph!" the air was knocked out of her from the collision and she stumbled backwards nearly losing her balance.

"You would be stupid to follow me any further," Jareth pinned her with an angry stare.

Sarah was shocked into silence, but she quickly recovered with an anger of her own, "What, not happy to see me? How about you just erase my memory then and send me away?"

Jareth's angry mask cracked slightly revealing surprise. He must not have realized she remembered last night. Then Sarah remembered the real reason she was following him, "And how dare you bully Hoggle! He has done nothing wrong."

Jareth's angry look returned, "The dwarf Boggle was arrested as a traitor to the crown because he is giving secrets to the enemy." His accusatory gaze sent thrills throughout Sarah as it ran up and down her body.

" _Hoggle_ is my friend. He didn't tell me any state secrets. What kind of tyrant has his subjects watched like that anyways? Or do you only watch Hoggle?" Sarah asked narrowing her eyes at Jareth's faltering gaze, "Aha! It is just Hoggle! Otherwise you would arrest Sir Didymus for messaging me in Words with Friends!" Sarah clapped a hand to her mouth, immediately regretting her idiotic slip.

But instead of using her mistake against her as she expected, Jareth just looked at her curiously. With a slightly amused grin he asked, "You play Words with Friends?"

"Don't you dare go after Sir Didymus!" Sarah commanded. Jareth smiled and stalked up to Sarah.

"Maybe I won't… If you promise me something in return," he offered flirtatiously. Sarah was starting to get distracted by his proximity.

"Promise what?" she asked quietly, trying to keep a clear head for her friends' sakes.

"Do not contact anyone in the Labyrinth anymore and stay away from Francis Bonhomme," he demanded in a serious tone. Sarah was curious about that last part but her curiosity was quickly drowned out by overwhelming anger over Jareth's selfish demands.

"You can't ask that of me! They are my friends! And I work with Francis! The play we are in will be my big break!" Sarah shouted.

"I'm not asking," Jareth said with a deadly calm. He was standing over Sarah in a predatory manner.

"What are you jealous or something? Who are you to tell me who I can and cannot talk to?" she questioned. His ridiculous patronizing attitude was really starting to get on her nerves.

"It's for your own protection," Jareth said. He was incredibly close to her now.

"Protection? What for? I thought I was the enemy!" Sarah tried to inch away from Jareth who watched her movement with a smug grin. From a slightly more comfortable distance Sarah reasoned, "If I'm not the enemy then you can't arrest Hoggle!"

Jareth was silent as he seemed to consider what she had just said. All at once, Sarah could feel thick desire in the air. Was that from her or could it be him? Maybe it was both? She was definitely starting to lose her focus as Jareth closed the tiny distance between their bodies. His lithe but powerful chest was nearly touching hers.

In a voice swollen with suggestion, he challenged, "I wonder Ms. Williams, how far will you go to prove that you are not my enemy?"

Sarah struggled to retain logical thought. Her body was aflame with want but somewhere in the back of her mind a voice was shouting _It's a trap! Beware of peaches!_ By some saving grace, Sarah had a brilliant idea that would save herself and Hoggle. But first she had to play along with Jareth's flirty games without losing her cool. That would be no easy feat even for her great acting abilities.

"If I do something to prove that we are not enemies, will you let Hoggle go?" she asked in an authentically husky voice while performing a practiced flirtatious lip-bite.

Jareth gave a sensual but noncommittal "Hmm" as he snuck a hand around her body bringing them together.

His hot and powerful hold on her nearly made Sarah lose all thought but by some miracle she managed to demand, "Yes or no?" before she gave into temptation and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to seem as if she was doing it to hold him back, but really she was just happy to touch him. They were like that for some time. Sarah thought she could feel something like electricity or magic coursing from the palm she put on his shoulder to the palm he had on her back.

"Yes," he finally hissed as if he was fighting his own internal battle for control, looking longingly at her lips. Then he pulled her tighter to him as she reached up as if to capture his mouth.

Before she did, it took all of Sarah's resolve to firmly escape his hold pushing back on his shoulder. Then, even though her senses were still aflame, she managed to casually say "Good then lets exchange numbers and become Facebook friends. That will prove that we aren't enemies."

Jareth's beautiful eyes blinked at her in confusion, the arm that had been wrapped around her was still out—holding nothing but cold air now. When he realized what she had said he fisted his hand in anger and lowered his arm, "No, that's not good enough."

"Why not?" Sarah demanded, staring at him defiantly. Jareth frowned and returned her gaze but was unable to stop his eyes from darting to her lips. Sarah was happy to see that his attempt to use his sexuality against her had obviously backfired on him. But she also felt the sting of un-fulfillment so she explained, almost more to herself than to him, "It is the only way I can prove our friendship _and_ be sure you won't try any memory magic again."

"If you insist," Jareth consented with a disgusted sneer, "But Facebook and phones are awfully mundane. Really Sarah, I'm disappointed in you."

Sarah scoffed, "Disappointed? Oh please! Don't act like a spoiled little boy just because I beat you at your own flirty game!"

In an instant Jareth was flat up against Sarah, hands on her wrists pinning her to the hard brick wall behind her with his equally hard body. Hard _everywhere_ Sarah couldn't help but notice. With wide eyes she looked up into Jareth's suddenly smiling face, "How can you call me a little boy when the proof of my manhood is pressed against your—" he glanced down then raised an amused eyebrow "—womanhood?"

His reversal of Sarah's own flirty question from the night before had very effectively succeeded in turning the tables on her sexually. Her insides were melting from the pent up desire that she could no longer fend off. No longer able to think of a witty retort, or any words at all, Sarah began to wantonly, yet very subtly, rub her lower body against his. The immense pleasure of the small friction made Sarah close her eyes and quietly sigh in gratification. She felt a soft vibration coming from Jareth's body, as if he was purring. His hips began mimicking her tiny movements. Sarah was about to pick up the pace of their pelvic dance when suddenly she felt his mouth softly cover hers. Sarah's eyes flew open and she gasped, ending their brief kiss. Kiss! They just kissed! Even though it was so quick, Sarah felt like squealing like one of his fangirls. Sarah never thought it would happen. She was actually living a fantasy she had been dreaming about since she was fifteen! But the fantasy collapsed around her as Jareth pulled away from her leaving her cold and boneless against the wall.

"That's better," he said.

"What no peach?" Sarah sarcastically retorted trying to recover from their hot and cold encounter.

"Not this time," Jareth replied cooly. He pulled out an iPhone from his leather coat pocket, "Your number please, as a symbol of our new alliance. Then I will release the dwarf."

"Yes! thank you!" Sarah laughed at the surreality of exchanging numbers with a Goblin King and ruler of a fantastical realm after very nearly dry humping him on a wall in the middle of London.

But before she could gloat properly over her victory, Jareth said, "But you are forbidden to contact him unless you go through me first."

Sarah bit back a bitter complaint. She decided not to push her luck as she accepted his very sleek phone and pulled out her shabby and cracked android to hand to him. He took it from her silently understanding that he was to enter in his own information. Sarah thought it funny that Jareth apparently kept up with the latest technology and trends. When she finished entering her number, Jareth was still fiddling with her phone. Sarah grew suspicious, "What are you doing?"

Jareth didn't answer, he just handed her phone back and took his from her. When Sarah looked down she saw that her previously cracked screen was miraculously fixed.

Sarah was astounded, "Thank you." But when she looked up, Jareth wasn't there. Sarah looked all around but he had completely disappeared. And what's stranger is that she could see the club at the other end of the alley even though she was sure she had turned down multiple alleys when she was following him earlier.

Sarah shrugged simply accepting the weirdness, then she went through her contacts on her phone. She couldn't find him under 'J' so she scrolled to 'M' thinking maybe he put himself down under his alias. That was when Sarah found it. 'My King'.

"What!" she cried. Sarah tried to edit his entry but it was locked somehow. "Ugghh, you are not _my king_!" she shouted at the spot where Jareth had been and she swore she could hear a faint, disembodied chuckle at her frustration. Then she felt her phone vibrate. It was a new message from 'My King'. It simply said "But I am yours."

Sarah blushed, not quite sure what to make of that message. Was he being possessive or romantic? Either way, Sarah hurried back to the club so she could grab a cab home. It was incredibly late and she had a long day of rehearsals tomorrow. Rehearsals with Francis. That will be interesting, Sarah thought back to their date earlier this same evening. It felt like forever ago and had completely slipped her mind after her encounter with Jareth. _Oh well_ , she thought, _whatever happens now it is sure to be interesting._

 _ENDE That's all for now folks! More to come later this week I've already got it pretty much finished so stay tuned! For now please review :D My text editor kept autocorrecting Hoggle to Boggle/Toggle lol sorry if there are mistakes but some are intentional. Also what does everyone think about the planned Labyrinth sequel? I am weary… This chapter's title is from : Wild is the Wind. Beautiful Song. Amazing Album. Not a single filler. I recommend._


	8. Sweet talking, night walking games

_Disclaimer: I own nothing Labyrinthine in nature. Allison I agree a gender reversal would be interesting. Wonder who would be a good Jareth-ina? From current musicians, I'd say maybe Grimes? There's something otherworldly about her look and music plus she's super BA._

Chapter 8: Sweet talking, night walking games

Eight o'clock the next morning, Sarah struggled to pull herself out of bed to get ready for her morning rehearsals. In a sleepy haze she showered then put on her comfiest jeans and light t-shirt combo. When she left her room to go make some desperately needed coffee, Masha was already in the kitchen holding a heavenly-smelling fresh pot. She grinned at Sarah's grogginess, mistaking it for a hangover.

"You are looking way too chipper for eight thirty in the morning," Sarah noticed grouchily.

"How late were you out drinking last night?" Masha asked Sarah, "I was getting worried that that guy you went out with had _taken_ you. I almost called Liam Neeson so he could go kick some bad-guy butt and find you."

It was too early to invent a plausible story for her roommate, so Sarah told the truth, "Actually the date with Francis was completely tame and ended pretty early. I got home before you guys did," Sarah grabbed her favorite Sinatra mug and held it out for Masha to pour in some fresh coffee.

"But you weren't here when we finally got back from rehearsals? Where did you go?" she demanded filling Sarah's mug nearly to the brim.

"Umm I ended up going back out to that club we were at the night before." Sarah sipped at the hot coffee trying to think of how to relate her interesting night without sounding like a nutcase.

"What? Why?" Masha looked confused and a bit worried.

"Well I remembered what happened when I kind of blacked out there. That singer I fell on… Well I kind of know him, from… back home." Sarah's vague explanation seemed to give Masha the wrong impression.

"Ohhhh say no more! Did you guys," she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Sarah, " _know_ each other? Wink wink, nudge nudge."

"No! No!" Sarah violently shook her head, "No sex was involved. God no! I knew him when I was a teenager."

"Mm-hmm and you just _had_ to go see this guy right away at some seedy club on a weeknight," Masha left the kitchen and headed for the couch. She seemed convinced there was something more to this story than what Sarah was telling her.

"Well I did have a huge crush on him," Sarah admitted, following Masha into the living room.

"Ah," Masha plopped into the couch spilling a bit of her coffee on her hand which she hastened to lap up with her tongue. Sarah looked on trying to think of a change of subject before her friend could continue her interrogation. But she wasn't quick enough, "What's his name?" Masha demanded once she had finished licking up her mess.

Sarah had no idea how to answer even that simple question as she stared above Masha's head at their 'mascot' Jareth the owl. Luckily a ping from her phone saved her from having to answer. Sarah pulled her phone from her pocket thankful for the distraction.

Her thanks were quickly forgotten, "Oh my god he's on Facebook!"

Sarah stared at the tiny bubble of Jareth's picture in the notification, completely stunned. She had forgotten about her offer to become Facebook friends. After seeing his obvious disgust when she mentioned it, she assumed he didn't have one.

"Lemme see, lemme see!" Masha cried jumping up from the couch, coffee wildly cascading over the sides of her mug.

Sarah thought about not showing Masha, but the overwhelming desire to stalk Jareth forced her to pull it up immediately. His stunning profile picture of him in a stylish turtle neck was breathtaking, even though he was staring at the camera with obvious disdain. The name on the page was simply 'Monte' and no last name. Sarah had thought it was 'Monty' and probably stood for something but 'Monte' must be a stage name or something. Seeing it smade her happy she no longer had to tell Masha that his name was in fact Jareth, the same as their mascot and her one-time pretend husband/boyfriend. His cover photo was a grainy black and white shot of him singing with his band in a small club. Further down were more pictures of him and his band from a ton of random girls posting to his wall expressing deep felt love and admiration for his work or trying to get him to listen to some song of theirs or to go some gig. Sarah rolled her eyes, all that can't be good for his already inflated ego. She found it strange that he actually liked or commented back on a lot of those posts. For the most part it was a regular Facebook profile and obviously well-maintained. It was amazing how human Jareth could be. Well, nearly human, he was still inhumanly gorgeous.

"Whoa this Monte guy is even better looking than I remember from the club," Masha said from over her shoulder. She was obviously on the same train of thought as Sarah. "And he's got a ton of friends," Masha observed. Sarah looked for herself and saw that his friend count was nearing four thousand.

"Whoa!" Sarah balked at the number. She had never seen a person with that many friends. She only had a measly 800-something. She opened the page to his list of friends sadly finding that all of them seemed to be youngish women. If she accepted his friend request would she be just another one among thousands? Even so, Sarah had to tap the 'Accept' button. After all it was her idea they become Facebook friends, even though it was only a half-serious suggestion meant to annoy him more than anything. Ironically it was Sarah who was incredibly annoyed by his Facebook. But she couldn't figure out just why. Looking at the time on her phone, she downed the rest of her coffee then headed for the front door.

"Gotta run! Laters!" she shouted.

Masha shouted back before Sarah could slam the door behind her, "Be good! Don't go to any random clubs or meet strange men without me tonight!"

As Sarah was walking to the studio, she debated sending Jareth a demand that he send her picture proof of Hoggle's release. But she couldn't find a way of wording it that was the perfect balance between firmness and flirtatiousness. Too firm and he might get offended and retaliate, but too flirty and he might not take her seriously. Sarah's internal quandary was interrupted by a notification from Words with Friends. She opened it expecting progress in her game with Sir Didymus but instead she found a new challenge from 'Monte' awaiting her. Sarah paused. This was another surprise. Was it a trick or a game? Well, that is, some game other than Scrabble? Cautiously, Sarah accepted the invitation. His first word was VICTORY going straight down the center. Sarah tried not to read into what that might mean. The word must be a coincidence. So she put down SIX then continued on her journey to rehearsal. But it wasn't two minutes before her phone pinged again. This time Jareth had played GENEROUS. That couldn't be a coincidence, he had to be messing with her. She forfeited a higher scoring TOPS to play STOP hoping he would get the message. But when he pinged her back almost immediately with PEACH Sarah decided no more aggravating word games until after work. Besides, knowing Jareth, there was a strong possibility he wasn't playing fair. She managed to get all the way to the building and up the steps before she felt her phone vibrate again. Ignoring it, Sarah said good morning to a less timid Chaz before heading to the stage to start the first morning rehearsal with Ron and Charles.

It wasn't until her lunch break a few hours later that Sarah finally checked her phone. The urge was too great since she had nothing to do as she stood in line at an incredibly crowded and trendy salad place. She had a text message from 'My King' that read, "If you ever manage to beat me, I will take you to visit your traitorous, yet graciously unpunished, dwarf friend" and then he followed-up with another message an hour after his first one, "My generous offer will expire soon-I don't like waiting"

Immediately Sarah attacked their game with renewed determination. She wanted to see Hoggle very badly and perhaps Jareth would let her see her other friends in the Labyrinth too. Carefully studying the board for possible moves, Sarah only broke her intense concentration to quickly order a couple of Caprese salads, one for her and one for Chaz. Sarah was cursing the abnormal amount of E's she had in her letter panel when she finally made the perfect move—GEEZER—it nearly caught her up to his score and it would sting Jareth's vanity in the process. Sarah smiled, proud of her cleverness as she headed back to the studio laden with food. Inside, she unloaded the salad bowls on the front desk and sat down next to Chaz who immediately asked, "So, how was your date with foxy Francis?"

"Semi-date," Sarah corrected. While she was filling in Chaz on the details of her dinner with Francis in between bites of her salad, the man himself appeared from the hallway.

"Oh! Hi Francis!" she greeted innocently while secretly monitoring him for any sign of the 'danger' Jareth had warned of, "I was just bragging to Chaz about how you snapped your fingers and this amazing food just appeared out of nowhere last night."

"Impressed? Well stick with me babe I've got a lot more tricks up my sleeve," Francis gave her a cheeky grin and winked at Chaz. Chaz blushed and quickly looked down, obviously flustered. Francis grabbed Sarah's hand and dragged her away from her food and into the hallway.

Once they were alone, Francis stopped and said, "So, Charles just informed me that the two of us have to stay late again tonight to go over what we worked on yesterday since he'll be busy with wrong-line-Ron all day," his thumb was doing that thing where it was rubbing her wrist again, but oddly enough Sarah found she wasn't as affected this time. Francis must have noticed because he stopped doing it and casually asked, "Want to grab drinks after?"

Sarah had been studying his handsome face as he was speaking. Now that she had seen Jareth up close again, she could plainly see now that their two faces were not identical at all. Overall, Francis's features were a little softer than Jareth's. His more youthful appearance came from a pair of wide blue eyes and a pouty bottom lip. But, something in his knowing grin gave Sarah a feeling that he was older than he looked. He seemed innocent enough on the outside. Sure he was flirty and a bit too man-handle-y with her but other than that Sarah couldn't detect any danger from her costar. Jareth's odd warning was probably just out of jealousy. And besides, she felt more in danger when she was alone with Jareth than with Francis.

She kept this all in mind when she gave Francis a careful answer, "Sure, after work drinks sound fun. We could talk more. I feel like you know all about me now but I still know next to nothing about you."

"Well," Francis smiled at her, "It will be my pleasure to take you out and answer any questions you might have for me." He released her hand then opened the backstage door and asked, "Want to come and watch Charles develop an ulcer from Ron's legendary acting skills?"

Sarah giggled, "In a bit, I wanna finish the rest of my lunch first." Sarah watched him go, smiling, until the stage door closed behind him. Then she headed back to the front desk to go finish her lunch, comparing the two mysterious men who have suddenly popped into her life. Francis was a gentleman. Jareth was a tyrant. Francis promised her answers. Jareth toyed with her. The choice between them should seem obvious, but Sarah found herself feeling an affinity for both of them. Which was very confusing. For now, Sarah just thought it best to proceed cautiously in her relationships with both of them. Wherever that may lead her.

When she sat back down next to Chaz, he informed her, "Your phone has been vibrating a lot ever since you walked off with your beau."

Sarah laughed but insisted playfully, "He's not my beau."

The office phone began to ring, demanding Chaz's attention. Sarah checked her own phone while he was occupied and sure enough, there was a new notification from Words with Friends and two new messages from 'My King'. She checked the messages first.

The first one angrily threatened, "Reference old age in any way once again Ms. Williams and I will consider it a declaration of war between us—friendship be damned" Sarah felt a little bad about her GEEZER trick now, she didn't want her teasing to ruin their newfound truce. His sensitivity confused her, it didn't fit in with Jareth's image. Until she read his next message.

"Besides I found it much more physically stimulating to be your adversary" Sarah smiled. Now that's more like Jareth. And she couldn't help but agree on some level with what he said. Words with Friends was a fun game but it couldn't hold a candle to the thrill of their sexual standoffs from the past couple of nights. Randomly, she wondered where the Goblin King was and what he might be doing right now. Her mind wandered around those thoughts as she finished her salad. Chaz was still talking to the other party on the phone. Sarah had no idea who it was or what it was about. She was too busy daydreaming. Maybe he was in the Labyrinth tormenting his citizens. Maybe he was in London. Was he thinking about her right now too? He was probably still waiting for her to make a move.

"I'm gonna go watch rehearsal," she told Chaz who merely waved bye in response. She entered the theatre and sat in the isolated back corner. On stage, Charles was sweating and dabbing at his forehead with his handkerchief. Occasionally he would shout something obscene at Ron if the older man failed to remember the correct lines. Instead of enjoying the show, Sarah opened Words with Friends to find that Jareth's latest word NAIVE demolished the progress she had made in catching up to him. He certainly wasn't going easy on her. Sarah scoured the board to find a high-scoring possibility. She didn't look away from her phone once until at last she played the word SATI for a whopping 56 points. Satisfied with herself, Sarah looked up to watch the rest of Ron's rehearsal but her phone buzzed not two minutes later. INSATIABLE. Sarah grunted. How was it so easy for him to trump her last move? And with such a suggestive word! Studying her options, Sarah reached a predicament. The move that would get her the most points would be to use the S in her panel the E in NAIVE the X in SIX. But Sarah couldn't bring herself to do it. What would playing that word say to Jareth? Would the thirty five points be worth it? Is this a game she could play with him?

Very quietly she assured herself, "No need to get yourself worked up. It's only an innocent game. Just random words made from random tiles."

In the end she made the leap, SEX. Almost immediately he made his move. MOAN. Sarah was starting to lose awareness of the world outside of her phone. She couldn't stop herself from joining the growing frenzy. CRAZE. Each word got more and more racy. THROB. And it got easier and easier for Sarah to respond. HARDER. She wasn't even paying attention to the scores. MORE. FAST. She couldn't even tell who was playing what. FONDLE. LONG. The word flow was uncontrollable. WILD. HOT. Sarah's insides were boiling. HOT. NEED. She was remembering and longing for the amazing magic she felt when she touched Jareth. SOFT. But the flow came to a sudden stop when Sarah realized she couldn't find a single possible word to play. The only move she could make now was US. After she played it she looked back at the verbal orgy that she and Jareth had splattered across the board. Sarah blushed. That game got out of hand really quickly. When she checked her clock, she was amazed to see that they had been playing like that for nearly an hour. Jareth played AH. He was obviously running out of options too. The game was nearly over. Sarah finally looked at the scores. Jareth was winning! By thirty points! There was no way she could beat him now with only five letters left. The game returned to normal again as they dispersed their few remaining tiles around the board until it was all through. Jareth was the winner. Sarah was only mildly upset about that. She was more upset that she had lost control over herself. And just over an innocent word game! The app prompted her to challenge Jareth to a rematch but she declined. It looked like they were nearly done with Ron's parts on stage. She would probably be needed soon. She had to remember that her job came first, the game could wait. But apparently Jareth could not. He had already challenged her again but Sarah chose to ignore it. She tried to focus on the rehearsal instead. But when her phone vibrated about ten minutes later, she couldn't stop herself from checking the new message, "What's the matter too tired for a second round? Have I exhausted you Sarah? Pity I was starting to enjoy our innocent game of random words and tiles"

Sarah rolled her eyes, then she texted back, "Not at all tired. It's just that some of us have proper jobs and can't spend all day playing silly little games."

A few moments later Sarah realized he had nearly repeated the same thing that she whispered to herself before the whole word orgy began. Was he spying on her? In a frenzy Sarah looked around searching for prying eyes. That's when she found them. Someone had been watching her. But it wasn't Jareth. It was Francis. Instead of looking away, Francis held her gaze and grinned in wolfish way that seemed so familiar to her. His eyes were gleaming as if he knew everything that was running through her head at this moment. That was when Sarah had a crazy thought. _Could Jareth, Monte, and Francis all be the same man?_

 _dun dun dun! Dramatic finish to this week's edition of : how much sexual tension can I pump in to this story before everyone pops from frustration? Visit us again next week when we find out the answer to : Could Jareth, Monte, and Francis all be the same man? dun dun dun! This chapter title is a line from Queen B* #%_


	9. You got your mother in a whirl

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I am writing about. Sorry for the delay! for whatever reason this chapter was hard to write. Thanks for sticking with me :D please review if you can it makes me super happy!_

Chapter 9: You got your mother in a whirl

Sarah's intense focus on Francis was immediately broken when she got another text notification, "If you keep on making excuses you won't get to visit the Labyrinth and your friend Boggle"

Although she was staring down at her phone, she could still feel the heated gaze of Francis on her like a fire. Sarah couldn't shake the thought that maybe he was just another elaborate disguise by Jareth. It seemed possible. Well there was a quick and easy to test that theory. She wrote out a response to Jareth's message,"His name is Hoggle. And I will play again only if you tell me who Francis Bonhomme is."

Her finger hovered over 'Send' but before pressing, she looked up at Francis. He was a picture of boredom lounging in a chair across the room, holding a coffee in one hand and propping his head with the other. Lounging like that, he looked like a model posing for a GQ centerfold, or, Sarah swallowed back a lump in her throat, like a king posing for a portrait. His piercing blue eyes were still staring right at her. Without looking down at her phone, Sarah hit the 'Send' button. Francis's gaze was unrelenting. But even under its growing intensity, Sarah found that she didn't have to try too hard to stare back at his alluring face. Gorgeous eyes. Mouth-watering cheekbones… She wondered what he could see in her own face that could hold his interest for this long. Sarah forced back an automatic urge to check her face for remnants of food or unblended make up—she couldn't let Francis out of her sights for this experiment to work. The seconds continued to tick by but neither of them looked away. It seemed as though their bizarre staring contest would last forever. Finally, after some indeterminate amount of time, Sarah felt her phone vibrate.

Relieved, she darted a glance at her phone to check Jareth's response, "He's someone you need to avoid."

Well that theory didn't last long. Francis didn't touch a phone at all in the time her text and Jareth's response. So unless 'My King' was telepathically texting her, Francis and Jareth were two different people. But maybe Goblin Kings were telepathic? Good God she hoped not. If Jareth knew how often Sarah imagined the two of them trapped alone in a cold oubliette together and the only way for them to stay warm would be to generate ample body heat… Sarah trembled. If he ever found out about those fantasies, she would be forced to kill him just to avoid the embarrassment. Forcing her thoughts to get back on stable footing, Sarah also realized that if her costar and the Goblin King were the same people—it couldn't explain why Jareth was so adamant that she stay away from Francis. None of it made any sense. What was between those two?

She texted Jareth,"Why should I avoid Francis?"

"Because I say so." was Jareth's immediate reply. Sarah rolled her eyes. Typical Jareth obtuseness.

"What are you jealous or something?" she texted back.

"This conversation is beginning to bore me. Are you going to play our game or not Sarah?" Jareth demanded.

Sarah was amazed at how someone who was definitely older than her—his age was another subject she would have to do some sleuthing on—could act like such a spoiled child.

"Sarah!" Sarah's head whipped towards the stage. Charles was waving at her, trying to get her attention. Ron was gone—Francis was there instead, grinning at her obvious state of distraction. Charles continued calling her and waving his hands, "Sarah I need you and Francis to run through what we worked on yesterday if you please."

"Of course Charles I'll be right there," Sarah darted her glance back to the director and away from her mysterious costar. She stood up while hurriedly typing out one final message.

"I'll play later gotta work now" she sent it then tucked her phone into her back-pocket and headed for the stage.

Some time later, they finished rehearsals—and a bit ahead of schedule this time. Her interaction with Francis completely charmed Charles. The tubby man couldn't stop blubbering over the chemistry of his two leads in between runs, but Sarah found that their chemistry was merely routine to her now. It wasn't as electric as it had been in their previous rehearsals. When Francis whispered ardent proposals of love to her now, all Sarah could hear were the frivolous depictions of something so obviously scripted and unreal. When compared to her steamy encounters with Jareth, these so-called romantic scenes with Francis were nothing more than play-acting. Sarah was now absolutely certain that Francis wasn't Jareth. Jareth's mere presence was more electrifying than these tepid love scenes. Sarah headed for the back stage where Francis was putting on his jacket. She was starting to regret accepting Francis's invitation to go out, but it couldn't be helped. At least he had promised her answers. Francis smiled at her as she approached, blissfully unaware of her newfound lack of enthusiasm.

"I hope you like Fusion," he said a little excitedly. Before Sarah could answer, she felt a repetitive buzz coming from her left butt pocket.

"Hang on, someones calling" she said to Francis as she fumbled for her phone. When she looked at the display she was surprised to see that it was her mother.

"Sorry I gotta take this its my mom." She explained to Francis. He silently acquiesced as Sarah hurriedly exited the stage into the hallway to get some privacy.

"Hello mom?" she asked. But it wasn't her mother's voice that greeted her back.

"Um no. Sarah Williams? This is your mother's agent Eddie." Sarah's face fell.

"Oh um, right, Eddie. Hi. Is, uh, is something wrong? Why are you calling me from my mother's phone?" Sarah paced the hallway feeling a little agitated. Why was her mother's agent calling her out of the blue?

"Oh nothing's wrong Sarah, this is actually my phone that I'm calling from. You probably thought it was Linda since she always uses my phone to call you. I guess that awful blackberry of hers is for business contacts only." He chuckled in good humor not knowing his words stung Sarah. It's not very amusing to find out that a stranger has been in your phonebook as 'mom' for years.

"Anyways," Eddie continued when Sarah didn't respond, "Linda and I were hoping you could join us for dinner tonight at her apartment. Say around nine? Can you make it?"

"Umm yeah, sure I can make it," Sarah said completely forgetting Francis for the moment, "What's the occasion?"

"Oh you know just want to finally get to know by biggest client's daughter! Especially now that she's entering the business," Eddie chuckled conspiratorially, "Thought you could use some friendly advice from two old pros like your mum and me."  
"Oh sounds great, yes I would," Sarah said, forcing herself to mimic his friendly manner. She was starting to feel incredibly stressed all of a sudden.

"Great! You know the place?" Eddie asked.

"Mm-hmm" Sarah answered. She should, it was her original plan to stay there before her mom flaked out.

"Good good! We'll see you at nine!" Then he was gone before Sarah could even say good bye.

She lowered her phone and sighed. This night was getting too complicated. She turned and headed backstage again to go cancel drinks with Francis. He was standing in the same place as when she left, but he looked much more somber now, standing there with his hands in his pockets and unblinking eyes. Sarah hesitated before speaking. It looked almost as if he knew what she was about to say—which only made it worse for her.

"I'm really sorry but I have to go see my mom tonight, can we do drinks another time?" she asked sweetly.

"Of course. Your mother is more important than drinks," he said flatly. Sarah wasn't sure if he was upset or not. "I'm sure you two need to talk." He continued.

Sarah looked at him, a bit shocked by his knowing response before she remembered that she had told him about her housing predicament with her mother. "We'll get drinks tomorrow." He stated then began to walk away.

"Thanks for understanding," Sarah said as he disappeared out the door. She felt a little guilty flaking on him and sad that she would have to wait for his answers. He was definitely acting weird, would he even want to answer her questions now? Sarah hoped she hadn't upset him too much. Then she began to worry about this strange invite to her mother's place for dinner. It was odd timing. She hadn't talked to her mom since moving to London. Could this be some kind of apology dinner for rejecting Sarah's request to live with her? Sarah took a deep breath then checked her watch. It was eight o'clock now. Sarah pocketed her phone then took off in the direction of home. If she were to take a cab to her mom's flat, she had just enough time to stop off at her place really quick to change into something more formal than jeans and a t-shirt.

It wasn't until Sarah was sitting in a cab in her newest TopShop dress and shoes on the way to Kensington when she remembered Jareth and her promise to play with him. Happy for the distraction from her growing feelings of unease, Sarah pulled out her phone and challenged Jareth to a new round of Words with Friends. Determined to keep it rated G this time, Sarah played PACKET even though she could have played PACKAGE for more points. It was safer to sacrifice points right now since she wasn't sure she could mentally handle more suggestive word-sex with him in her current state. He countered her move a couple minutes later with SUBMIT. Well so much for keeping it clean. Sarah couldn't contain an excited giggle even though she should have been annoyed that Jareth managed to thwart her attempt to be decent and while getting more points than her in the process. Sarah froze when a thought hit her, she could easily beat him and keep it clean if she just cheated. Well, not exactly cheat. She could just get a little help. From the internet. After a quick internet search, Sarah was able to play ZING for a whopping 102 points. But no more than a minute later Jareth had thwarted her yet again by playing KAJEPUTS, which is apparently a word, for an insane 112 points. "That's it he's definitely cheating," Sarah declared.

"What's that luv?" the driver asked turning down his radio.

"Oh sorry just talking to myself," Sarah replied, realizing that she wasn't alone. The entire ride she was looking up some cheat to beat Jareth's latest cheat. By the time the cab had pulled up to her mother's pristine white, three-story building, their game was looking like an encyclopedia. They were both obviously breaking the rules at this point but Sarah still found it incredibly fun for some reason. She got out of the car, thanked and paid the cabbie then she passed through the gated garden. When she reached the door, she steeled herself for a moment before ringing the doorbell. Sarah quickly shoved a last-minute mint into her mouth as the door opened to reveal, not her mother, but a small barrel-chested man with a russet, slightly greying, hairstyle. He was wearing an ill-fitting long t-shirt and tight black pants and tennis shoes that were all way too young for him.

"Sarah! Yes it must be you—my goodness, you could double for Linda! It's me Eddie!" he proclaimed, like some long-lost relative, then he leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, "Mwah! Please do come in Linda just stepped out quickly to pick up a few refreshments." The lively man ushered Sarah into the obnoxiously adjacent room. She felt silly in her dress as she took another look at Eddie's norm core look.

"Sit, sit!" He shouted gesturing at a strange-looking apparatus that was apparently a sofa, "I'll get you some champagne. I'm afraid that's all Linda has handy." Eddie explained then left her alone in the empty reception room. It was stylishly minimalist to a fault. There were no pictures, no pillows, no personality, no life. All the space-age furniture looked incredibly uncomfortable. Looking around her, Sarah felt a little bit better that she ended up in her cozy flat with Masha and Melissa. After testing the couch and chairs to find that they were indeed as uncomfortable as they were stylish, she ended up just leaning up against the blank wall and pulling out her phone to check on her game with Jareth. He had put down MESSAGE. Sarah looked up her best next move which was GOX.

A minute later, Jareth messaged her, "I warn you Ms. Williams cheating is a punishable offense."

Sarah smiled as she messaged back a slightly cryptic, "I have no idea what you are talking about. I'm playing fairly."

How could he possibly know or prove if she was cheating? Besides she was almost certain he wasn't playing completely fair either. Especially when his last word was WAHINE. Nevertheless, she was worried about what he might possibly mean by punishment. She hoped he was being flirty and not serious as she looked to the internet to find what move to make next. She still had yet to make sure that Hoggle was safe from bog-submersion. Just as she was entering CALATHEA Eddie returned holding two glasses of champagne. Sarah put her phone away and took the glass he offered to her.

They made a silent cheers and sipped their champagnes.

"Mm good stuff!" Eddie declared smacking his lips. Sarah couldn't tell either way, but she was sure it was something very expensive.

"So tell me about you!" Eddie boomed, his voice bouncing off of the stark white walls.

Sarah made some small talk with Eddie to pass the time, telling him about her education, her audition, and the play. She hoped her mother would show up soon when she began to run out of interesting things to say.

"So you're engaged?" Sarah nearly choked on her champagne at Eddie's innocent inquiry. She realized a certain ruby ring was still lodged on her left ring finger. She kept forgetting about that stupid thing.

"Oh no no no. this was actually a gift from my mom," Sarah rubbed the ruby, somewhat torn as to whether she should take it off or not. It fit that finger so perfectly it probably wouldn't fit any of her other fingers as well. But she wasn't sure it was worth giving off the wrong impression to strangers on to her relationship status.

Her phone vibrated. That must be Jareth again. As nice as Eddie was, Sarah was getting a little bored just talking to him as they waited for her mom to join them. Her game with Jareth was much more interesting and satisfactory. Her phone buzzed again. Her hand was itching to check what he had sent her. Eddie must have noticed her impatience, "I'm going to call Linda, she must have gone to Cornwall for those refreshments."

He politely took Sarah's now-empty glass and headed for the kitchen area once more. Sarah smiled. At last! She was free to play with Jareth again. First she read his message, "If you can explain your knowledge of calatheas within the next thirty seconds, I'll give you a free turn." Sarah hurriedly searched the term and found out that calatheas were a tropical and popular houseplant. She quickly texted him "My favorite plant!"

But he rapidly responded, "Sorry Sarah you ran over the allotted time. You'll have to be quicker if you want to beat me."

"Ugh! Not fair!" Sarah shouted to herself. Just then she heard a strange clacking at the window near the kitchen door. Looking out she saw a familiar sight. It was a barn owl! "Jareth!" Sarah gasped nearly dropping her phone in astonishment. She had a brief moment of déjà vu as she stared at the flurry of dark feathers attacking the window. Sarah attacked the window latch but it was jammed. Could that be Jareth? Wasn't Jareth's owl-form lighter than that? This owl looked nearly black. When she finally managed to open the window the dark owl had disappeared. Instead, Sarah could make out an angry voice coming from the back garden. "Stop behaving like a child! Why else would you put 'Talk to Sarah about her contract' on the calendar?!" It was Eddie, and he sounded very upset, "If anyone is going to represent your daughter it should be me!" Was he talking to her mother? "OK fine, fine, I'm sorry I didn't check with you first." Sarah knew she shouldn't be eavesdropping but just as she was about to close the window she heard Eddie say a bit more calmly but still with some indignation, "What you can't bear your only daughter's presence for five minutes? She's been waiting for ages." Sarah felt like someone had just punched her in the gut. "Ok, I'm sorry. I'll make some excuse, I'll blame filming. That's what you usually do isn't it?"

Sarah closed the window then and took a deep breath. What did she just hear? Was her own mother avoiding her home just so she didn't have to see Sarah? When had their relationship deteriorated so much? Hearing Eddie approach the door next to her she hurried back to where he had left her. Struggling to maintain composure, Sarah made a convincing disappointed face when Eddie informed her that some emergency reshoot for her mom's tv show prevented Linda from joining them tonight.

By some miracle, Sarah managed to convincingly say "Aw that's too bad," without giving any sign of the suffering brewing deep inside her. Eddie continued speaking in an apologetic tone but Sarah wasn't really listening. He was probably saying something like her mother would call Sarah later, but Sarah knew that would never happen. She knew Eddie was lying. And she knew he was pitying her. That only made her feel worse. At that moment Sarah just wanted to get out of her stupid dress and she wanted to get out of that horrible sterile room and that horrible white flat.

"Then I should probably go now, I have an early rehearsal tomorrow." Sarah said, deadpan. She made her way for the front door as Eddie said behind her, "Shall I call you a cab?"

"No thank you I'm parked just outside," Sarah lied. But she wouldn't be able to keep her composure if she stayed in there any longer.

"Lovely to meet you, sorry for the mixup!" Eddie bear hugged her before she could get all the way out the door.

"No worries," Sarah mumbled into his shoulder, "Nice to meet you too." She broke free from his hug and rushed out into the night tears already streaking her face.

She was walking very briskly and trying to hold off the uncontrollable flow of tears with the sleeve of her dress. Not noticing where she was going, Sarah took the first right—right into a hardened chest.

"Might I ask where you are planning to go on your own at this time of night, and in such a sorry state my little calathea?"

 _Sorry to end in such a weird/depressing place this chap was getting too long. Fun stuff ahead though ;) which means I'll def update soon. This chapter title comes from Rebel Rebel XXX_


	10. I'll walk beside you, I'm alive in you

_Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copy-written material I reference. Didn't like where I left it last chapter-sorry to leave you all hanging there so long—finals are nearly upon me. But don't worry I wrote something I like much better to hold us all over until finals are over next week_

 _( ･_ __･_ _) hope you like it too! Please review if you can lmk your thoughts!_

Chapter 10: I'll walk beside you, I'm alive in you

Sarah didn't think her night could have gotten any worse—but no. Of course the one person she bumps into at this moment is the semi-mythical and somewhat-dangerous man of her dreams.

"Jareth! What are you doing here?" Sarah quickly mopped up the remains of her ugly crying, hoping she didn't look as bad as she felt. He of course looked drop-dead gorgeous in his leather jacket and skinny jeans. Ultra skinny—sprayed-on jeans. Sarah fought incredibly hard to keep her gaze from gravitating towards his crotch.

"I believe I asked first," his stern tone snapped Sarah out of her sudden lustful thoughts.

"Um what did you ask me again?" She asked a little sheepishly, not meeting his piercing stare.

Jareth growled, obviously not used to having to repeat himself, "I asked you where you were planning to go."

Sarah was silent. She didn't know how to respond. She couldn't muster any of her usual pluck to combat his domineering nature. Jareth continued to stare her down as he folded his arms commandingly. "You are all alone." He pointed out. As if she hadn't noticed. Sarah looked up at him, his eyes were fierce, but when he spoke again his voice was gentler, "And it is quite late, calathea."

"Oh right umm," Sarah looked away trying to establish her whereabouts, but she had no clue where she was or how to answer him. Then she registered something, "Wait, what did you just call me?"

"I called you calathea," Jareth answered as his stance relaxed somewhat. He grinned at her when she just stared blankly back at him.

Then it suddenly hit her, "Oh right! Of course! Because it's my favorite plant!"

"Right," Jareth agreed, but Sarah thought she could detect some sarcasm.

"Beautiful—erm—flowers," Sarah said trying to cover up her blunder.

"Really? More often they are admired for their beautiful leaves," Jareth replied full on smiling now.

He may be amused but Sarah was starting to get annoyed now. What was he even doing here? And why were they talking about some dumb plant?

"Well how would you know? Do they even have clala—um—calalatheas in goblin land?" she huffed.

"Sarah," Jareth's smile vanished, he was back being grumpy. "Where are you going?" he demanded.

"Home," Sarah slumped and tears started welling up in her eyes once more. She didn't have the energy to act tough in front of Jareth, "I just want to go home."

"Then home we go," and he grabbed her hand in his walking back in the direction Sarah had come. Sarah's body was buzzing from the small contact. Just holding his hand was enough to stop her tears for good. As they crossed the street, he hooked her hand into his elbow. They were even closer now. A stray smile spread across Sarah's face when she realized that walking hand in arm like this must make them look like a couple to any random passers-by. The thought made her giddy, she felt so amazingly alive! All of her nerve endings were tingling, she was so close to him. She couldn't believe it! She wanted nothing more than to completely cling to his arm or rest her head on his shoulder, but instead she just leaned in and quickly took a discreet sniff, good god! He smelled amazing! Sweet, spicy, earthy. Sex. He smelled like mind-blowing sex. Apparently Sarah's libido had completely forgotten her earlier sorrow. They walked together in silence like that. The only audible sound was the delicate rhythm of their soft footsteps. And yet on the inside, Sarah's thoughts were a deafening roar. She was trying very hard to contain her ill-timed desire while trying to come up with something sexy and/or interesting to say, but no words were taking shape in the haze of pleasure blanketing her mind. When she finally thought of something that might pass for intelligent conversation, she turned to face Jareth. But when she saw that those magical eyes had already been intently staring at her, what she managed to say, or rather moan, was something close to, "Ahohhngod"

"Pardon?" Jareth was smiling again.

Sarah gave a small cough and muttered, "Flies," as if that explained her unintelligible outburst. Mentally punching herself for ruining the tranquil hush between by doing something so idiotic, she forced herself to say, "Um, you know you don't have to walk me home. I know the way from here." And yet her grip on his elbow automatically tightened as if to signal him otherwise.

"You may not realize it but you are in danger. Especially in your current condition." Jareth answered looking straight ahead, showing no sign of stopping or letting her go. Sarah even noticed that he had been gradually picking up the pace of their leisurely stroll.

"In danger from what?" But Jareth was still looking ahead and didn't answer her. Sarah pursed her lips in annoyance, "I have a right to know don't I?"

"My presence is keeping you safe. That is all you need to know," was Jareth's only reply.

"Really? And I'm supposed to feel safe in the company of a man who sent a killing machine after me when I was a teenager?" Sarah asked frustrated by his repeated warnings of danger and subsequent pig-headed refusal to explain said danger.

"Yes," Jareth replied completely stone faced, then he scowled, "You can't hold the cleaners against me. You were being a brat. And that stupid dwarf was there…" Jareth's voice trailed off. He was walking even faster now to the point that Sarah had trouble keeping in step.

"Ugh you are impossible," Sarah groaned, "Let me go I can walk by myself." His patronizing behavior was spoiling the illusions of bliss that she got from walking with him. But when she tried to disentangle herself from him, Jareth grabbed her hand again in a vice-like grip and began walking even faster. They were nearly running now. Heels pounding the pavement with a jarring force.

"Jareth! Let me go!" she demanded trying to yank herself free from his grip, but to no avail. "At least slow down. If you don't I'll fall and you'll have to drag me!" she threatened. Thankfully he slowed down a very tiny bit. But her reprieve was short-lived. Some dark shape that Sarah couldn't quite make out began to approach them from above and Jareth yanked her arm so that she fell into his urgent embrace. Then she heard him mutter something that sounded a bit like "F#$%* it," and all at once he lifted up into his arms. A sparkling cloud of potent magic overwhelmed her vision. Instinctively Sarah buried her head in Jareth's shoulder while clenching his jacket tightly, not caring that she was probably forever wrinkling the fine leather. Once the glittering dust cleared Sarah lifted her head to find that they were suddenly somehow in the middle of her bedroom. When Sarah finally began to piece together exactly what had just happened and exactly where she was now—and more importantly, who was clutching her to his chest—she began to panic. "What just happened? Put me down!" She squirmed until Jareth was forced to drop her none too gently. "How did we get in my room?" Sarah felt herself getting hysterical. She faced Jareth and began shouting, "You can't be here! Get out!" When he didn't move, she started to bang her fists against his chest, "Get out!"

"Sarah calm down," Jareth attempted to soothe her while capturing her flailing fists in his steady hands. His touch stilled her but the tears she had diverted earlier now returned full force. It was just all too much to handle. She leaned into Jareth's chest, crying into his shirt.

First her mom rejects her _again_ , then Jareth shows up to give her the most romantic five minutes of her life only to ruin it by—well, by being Jareth. And that weird shadowy thing nearly attacked them. Was she really in danger like Jareth said? She should feel safe and glad now that they were in her own room. Alone. But getting Jareth alone in her room was one of the common subjects of her many daydreams. And now that he was here, all she could do was smear the remains of her makeup on his white shirt. "It's not fair," she blubbered.

Jareth softly whispered something in response but his voice so low Sarah couldn't hear him. She only felt the soothing vibrations from his chest on her cheek. He wrapped his arms around her and held her like that until she had completely calmed down. Sarah could have stayed like that forever, but suddenly an enormous stomach growl interrupted their comforting cuddle-sesh. Oh god that was the most un-ladylike noise that had ever come out of Sarah. Her cheeks were on fire with embarrassment but Jareth only chuckled and pulled her off of his chest, "Stay here, I will get you food." His command was stern and forceful, but Sarah was too exhausted to feel anything but thankful. She gazed into his mystical eyes and nodded, smiling. But when he reached the door she cried, "Wait! My roommates might be here. How could I explain you? Or how we got here?"

"Don't worry they're not here," Jareth assured her. Sarah merely frowned so he added lightly, "It's alright. Trust me,"

He remained frozen at the door until she nodded again. Now that he had her permission he opened the door to reveal an empty flat. He looked at her, his face inscrutable as he gently closed the door behind him. Now safely alone, Sarah took a moment to get completely calm. She was embarrassed that Jareth saw her tantrum. What must he think of her now? Oh well, after the week she's had Sarah felt entitled to a meltdown or two. She checked her makeup, it was nearly completely gone. She didn't think that she had been crying that heavily. Sarah cringed, a lot of it probably ended up on Jareth's shirt. She quickly applied some light mascara and chapstick all the while thinking about the man in her flat. He was in her flat! Jareth was in her flat getting her food! Was he cooking? Could he cook? Sarah didn't know. She thought it odd that she knew nearly nothing about this amazing man—if he was even human?— except that he affected her so much. Despite all of his mystery, Sarah found that after what just happened, he didn't seem so devious anymore. She tore off her dress, happy to be rid of it, but unsure of what to put on now. She was about to eat dinner with Jareth, was this like a date? Sarah banished that thought, no he was just being kind. A good friend. She slipped on her favorite black thong—it was honestly very comfortable—and matching black lace bra. Just in case. But more-so because they were comfortable. Then to even out the sexiness, she put on an oversize sweatshirt and footed leggings. Sarah looked in the mirror satisfied with her perfectly causal yet stylish ensemble. A soft knock indicated Jareth's return.

"Come in," Sarah said then quickly positioned herself elegantly in the tall wicker chair beside her bed. Jareth entered, holding a beautiful tray of delicious looking food and there was even a marvelous looking flower in her favorite Frank Sinatra mug. Sarah was amazed, she didn't even know that they had a serving tray. And there was no way he could have cooked up all that food in just a few minutes.

"Whoa are those tacos?" Sarah asked as he bent to place the tray on her lap with something close to reverence. Sarah was suddenly reminded of something he said once. Something about an offer of servitude? No it was worship. But she couldn't remember when he he ever said that. She must be confusing her fantasies with reality again.  
"Japanese tacos," Jareth answered, bringing Sarah back to the present.

"Fusion?" then she couldn't help a giggle when she realized that both Jareth and Francis were apparently foodies.

"What's funny?" Jareth asked smiling. She looked at him, still leaning over her chair.

"Oh nothing really. You've made it so fancy, thank you. I didn't know we had a serving tray," she said, enchanted by how sweet he could be when he tried.

"Oh that's an illusion. It's actually your cutting board." he explained nonchalantly. Sarah's jaw dropped in amazement.

"And this," Sarah asked indicating the flower in the mug.

"Oh I forgot," Jareth's brows furrowed in concentration as he picked up the mug. And with a simple flick of the wrist he set back down a beautiful glass vase.

"That is so cool," Sarah said, staring in awe at his face which was struggling in vain to keep from looking very self-satisfied. Sarah smiled at what were his obvious attempts to nonchalantly impress her. She wanted more magic of his fun magic. "Can you change it back? I actually really like that mug. It's my favorite," she requested sweetly.

"Change what back?" Jareth asked just as sweetly with wide and uncharacteristically innocent eyes.

"The mu—" but when Sarah looked again the vase and flower were gone. "Wha—?" she looked back at Jareth and he the mug was back in his hand—minus the flower. He grinned at her and took a sip. Sarah laughed. Then she heard him chuckle back, as he placed her mug on her nearby nightstand. He was obviously pleased by her wonderment. Sarah's laughter died out and in the back of her mind she noted that this was was the first time she had ever heard Jareth laugh. She wanted nothing more than to kiss him but then his face grew more serious as he demanded, "Eat."

When he said that, Sarah finally realized how hungry she was. She picked up her taco and eagerly took a large bite.

"Mm this is delicious!" she moaned. "Is this magic too?"

"No it's delivery," Jareth answered, putting his hands on either sides of her chair, encircling her. Sarah didn't notice as she took another huge bite. Another moan escaped her. She was so hungry and this food blurred the lines of heaven and earth. When she finished moments later, she looked up to see Jareth now standing over her chair, arms leaning on her chair's arm rests so very close to her own.

"Are you not hungry?" Sarah asked, inhaling deeply. She was quickly overcome once again by his sublime scent.

"No," Jareth tersely replied. Then he reached for the mug on her nightstand and shoved it in her face, "Here drink."

"What isn't that flower water?" she asked, accepting the mug anyways.

"The flower was an illusion. This is tea." Jareth explained seeming a little impatient, his face hovering a few inches from hers. Sarah took a sip. Indeed it was tea.

"Too bad. It was a nice flower," Sarah gave him a flirty grin, "But of course not as nice as a clathela flower."

"You little liar," Jareth smirked, his elegant nose wrinkled slightly causing Sarah's arms to erupt in goosebumps. His hands slowly traveled up the arms of her chair until his body lingered longingly above hers, "That was a _calathea._ " Then he leaned down to brush his lips against hers. They were so soft. They looked so delicate. Like the petals of the exotic flower he had conjured for her. And yet they were intensely hot and demanding. Their kiss was building steam quickly. Sarah was commending her foresight in wearing her sexiest black thong and bra when all of a sudden the door to her apartment flung open to a barrage of noise. Music was playing, bags were rustling, people were drunkenly singing, and Sarah could hear Masha loudly approaching, "Sarah! Sarah! Have you been taken by that Francis again?!"

Jareth immediately flew ten feet from Sarah, leaving her cold and holding what was once again just a cutting board and her mug of tea.

"Sarah we're going to watch—Oh!" Masha barged into Sarah's room but froze when she saw Jareth, standing in the corner. The noise was getting quieter in the living room, but Sarah could still hear Melissa loudly ordering whoever else was out there to set up the Netflix. "S-sorry!" Masha stuttered, visibly stunned by Jareth's presence.

"No need to apologize, I was just leaving," Jareth answered in obvious annoyance. Sarah cringed, hating Masha more than anything right now. He silently made his way to the door.

"Don't go!" Sarah shouted, jumping up. But of course she had forgotten that she had been holding several things. She managed to catch the cutting board and plate, but Sarah watched in slow-mo as her favorite mug fell to her floor and smashed into dozens of tiny pieces.

Snapped out of her daze, Masha immediately reacted, "Oh no! Don't move I'll go get the broom!" Walking out, she left Jareth and Sarah alone once again. Jareth was staring at Sarah hesitantly as if he expected her to cry or shout. "I can fix it," he offered. But Sarah was oddly calm.

"No it's ok. It's just a mug," Sarah reasoned, "Masha would notice anyways" Despite her outer calm, internally she was cursing the hazardous glass on the floor that prevented her from running into his arms right now. She wanted to continue where they had left off before they were so rudely interrupted.

"I should go," Jareth stated, scowling.

Sarah coyly smiled back at him, nonplussed, "Stay?"

Jareth's face softened, but before he could reply, Masha quickly returned, broom-in-hand.

"So you're Monte right?" Masha asked as she heartlessly swept up the sad remains of Sinatra-mug into a dustbin. Sarah cringed, her roommate had no filter. But then it got worse, "Right Sarah? The guy we Facebook stalked earlier?" Sarah's cheeks burned with embarrassment. This couldn't get any worse.

And yet it could, "Actually, Monte is a stage name," Jareth explained. Now he was grinning at Sarah, probably delighted to hear that she had been Facebook stalking him, "My real name is Jareth."

Masha burst into such a strong fit of laughter that she dropped the dustbin and the mug's pieces. Sarah stared and grimaced at the mug's many shards on the ground. She had a huge desire to punch Masha-right in the boob.

"Melissa! Melissa!" her roommate cried. Unable to lift her head, Sarah heard Melissa quickly thump into the room, "Melissa! You'll never guess who this is!" Then without giving their other roommate a chance to even make a guess, Masha continued with glee, "It's Jareth! Our mascot! Sarah's fiancé!" Then Sarah heard Melissa erupt into laughter too. This was too much, she finally looked up from the floor. Masha and Melissa were slapping each other they were laughing so hard. Jareth simply observed, looking only somewhat confused by the hysterical, and obviously slightly pissed pair.

But Sarah had had enough, "That's it! Out both of you!" She cleared her way across the broken mug pieces not really caring too much if she happened to cut herself on a stray shard. She yanked the broom from Masha's clutches and pushed her two cackling roommates from her room. The instant the two passed her door's threshold, Sarah forcefully slammed it shut behind them. She leaned on the doorframe for a second, sighing and trying to think something to say to salvage this situation. But when she turned around a moment later, her room was completely empty, save for a good-as-new Sinatra mug resting on her bed. And inside the mug, there was a single, beautiful red flower.

 _The title of this chapter is from Word on a Wing. Saddened to hear that Labyrinth 2 has become just a remake :( And yet it will probably be a huge hit and loved by the today's youth. I pity them. PS Happy Glenn Ford day everyone! Anyone else watching Gilda on TCM? I know I'll be. Until next time!_


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